A Different Time
by firefox157
Summary: What happens when Katniss goes back to District 12 after the uprising and finds an old journal written by her Grandmother? Will she uncover the truth about the REAL 21 Hunger Games as the Journal is the only existing document of what Snow covered up so many years ago? A year of the Games completely erased, but why? Better Sumary inside. Please read and review, better than it sounds
1. Prologue

**Hey Guys! So, I have already posted about 15 chapters in this story but I have gotten a few requests as to put in a prologue so here you go! Please Review and tell me what you think so that I can make this story better and become a better writer! Thanks for clicking on the link to read this story I hope you enjoy it! **

**By the way I am open to and constructive criticism or any ideas you may have for this story! I promise I will credit the ideas to whoever gives them to me!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games! I only own my own ideas and characters that I put into this story!**

**Enjoy! And please remember to review!**

A Different Time.

PROLOGUE

Katniss Everden's POV.

Snow was finally dead and Panem was finally free. But more importantly the people of Panem were finally free. No more Hunger Games, no more kids fighting to the death, and no more families being torn apart. The cage surrounding us for so many years was finally broken, giving us the freedom that we had before. Renewing our hope, courage, strength, and hearts. So many had broken hearts from loved ones lost in vain and then there were people who had shoved away any attempt at mending into a dark corner out of fear for it to happen again. We were a shattered mess before and now we had the opportunity to change all of that for good, and to make sure nothing like this would every happen again.

I had just arrived in what was once my home, District Twelve. I walked through the ashes of what were once the Hob and the merchant shops. It was hard to see the place I had grown up in complete ruins. Nothing stood completely intact anymore, hell, almost nothing stood at ALL anymore. There was a pang in my gut reminding me that it was my actions that cause this to happen, if I hadn't escaped the Quarter Quell and gone to District 13, then this would never have happened. But also if I didn't go to District 13 then Panem wouldn't be free, and everything would go back to the way it was before. It would go back to being an absolute wasteland like before, like it is now. The only difference being now we can fix this, we can make a better Panem from the old ones ashes and make life for everyone in this country better that it was before. Panem was like a phoenix being reborn. And it was now that we could really make a difference in people's lives.

Walking through the ash covered grounds it seemed so far away, the possibility of raising out of what was left made it seem as if it was impossible to make everything better. Everything we had done and were now planning to do to make Panem great again seemed so far out of reach. I sighed, it would be a long time until everything was done, but it should be worth it in the end. I felt a small pain in my toe and a vibration surged through my leg. I looked down to see that my foot had collided with a small metal case while I wasn't pay attention. I knelt down by the small silver sticking out of the ground, moving the dirt away from it as I began to dig it free of the ground's grasp. The silver canister had several large rust spots around the entire perimeter, most likely indicating that it must have been in the ground for a long time.

It took a few minutes of digging but I got it free. It was a small container that looked like a chest, the lock looked as though it had been blown off, probably from when twelve was bombed a few months ago, and one side was hanging open. In other words this chest looked as though it had been though a battle zone about half a century ago. As I lifted it out of the ground something fell out of the open end, a leather backed ragged book that looked about as old as its container. The pages were stained a light copper color, and the whole thing looked like it could fall apart any second.

The inside wasn't much better, faded writing, tattered and ink stained pages, although I was afraid of it falling apart while holding the book, I let my curiosity get the better of me and I turned the pages.

_ "This journal is property of Jasmine Everdeen."_

I felt my brow furrow, could this really be who I thought it was.

_ "I don't have much longer left until they find out what I'm doing, but people need to know, and this is the only chance I have till they find this. This diary has the truth, the only true recording of what really happened this year during the Hunger Games. Snow banned anyone, everyone from even talking about it ever again, threatening us that if anyone dared to speak even a word about what REALLY did happen that he would send the Peace keepers after us and anyone that we had any sort of relationship with, and end us._

_ That's the main thing that's wrong with this place, Snow rules out of fear, he doesn't use smart or tactical moves unless they involve driving fear into our hearts, and crushing whatever small amounts of hope anyone had left, especially after the way these last Games ended. The next year of the Games won't be true; yes the fighting will be real. Yes, the deaths will be real, all the pain and suffering will be real, but only to cover up the lies. This whole country is built on lies and someday that will all come crumbling down."_

It already has crumbled, thanks to us. Thanks to all of the pain and suffering that has happened over all these years, all these years and there were people that had the same mindset as all of us, but didn't do a damn thing about it. They wouldn't get up off of their lazy asses and do something to change the way everything is! I tried to let my anger subside, but went back to reading anyway.

_ "Anytime anyone has tried to make a difference in this place they've been shot down and burned, literally. But hopefully if you are reading this, and I have not been killed before this is done, and if no one has yet I hope that you will be willing to take the stand like a few of the tributes from this year. It's funny the group of tributes that stood up to the capitol this year trying to end the Games is nothing that you would expect, a fisher boy from four, a seamstress' son from district eight, and harvester girl from eleven, and then the most shocking one, and the first and so far only volunteer from my home district, twelve, a victors daughter. They were brave enough to stand up for what so many thought was right, even though it cost them their lives. These four were the first to stand up to the capitol since the uprising, and we can all hope that they aren't the last ones to do so. And this journal is about them, about what really happened to them in the real 21__st__ Hunger Games._

_ By reading these words I have carefully recorded, I hope that someone would attempt to make a stand. To learn from what the tributes have done this year, and take action by assessing the actions of the past. History is important because those who don't know it are likely to repeat it. If we don't learn from what has happened then we can never hope to learn how to overthrow the Capitol and the tyrant Snow anytime soon. That is why I am taking such a big risk in recording these events. Whoever it is that finds this journal must know that you can be the person who lights the spark of rebellion within this country. It has been done before, in this past year actually, but the Capitol was able to snuff it out before anything too drastic was able to happen. If you find this, may it be over a hundred years from now, please take matters into your own hands and if something has already happened, or if this journal is never found, so be it. After all, everything bad has to come to an end sometime. My only wish is that this diary of mine can act as a catalyst to this process so that the least amount of innocent lives are taken."_

** So I guess it looks like Katniss has rebellion in her blood, huh? Even if it's small, it's still there!**

** Anyway, there's the prologue I hope that you enjoyed it and like I said before, review and tell me what you think. Also if you like it feel free to read on and please REVIEW!**

**Okay bye!**


	2. Chapter 1

** What if there was a year of the Games completely erased, one nobody remembered, and not a soul could utter a word about it? That is what happened in the real twenty-first Hunger Games, back when the Capital's rules weren't quite as strict, and when a select few could visit the other districts. Where a victors daughter, a seamstress' son, a fisher boy, and a harvester girl team up in the Arena in an attempt to stop the Games once and for all.**

**Hey so first off, thank you so much for clicking the link and deciding to read my story, I hope you like it! This is my first fanfic so it may be a little rough at places but bare with me, please!~ So, I'm gonna shut up now and let you read. ^_^**

**~ENJOY~**

A Different Time.

Aura POV  
I wiped the sweat off of my brow as the golden rays of light from the sun shone down on my dark skin while I was detaseling my assigned section of the corn crop. Each year it surprises me how everyone withstands the blistering heat, especially while wearing clothes that cover almost everything, but our faces to prevent gashes from appearing on our dark skinned bodies. I leaned backwards to stretch my back for a minute before taking a small sip of the canteen of water provided for us to prevent dehydration. While taking my little breather I decided to take a look at the people around me, wondering which two faces would become only memories after tomorrow's reaping. Thinking about the reaping tomorrow made my stomach twist, but what worried me about that was that not once in the four years my name has been in that bowl, having a possibility of being chosen, have I gotten the feeling that I would be one of the two unfortunate souls from district eleven to enter into the Arena.

Why did I all of the sudden feel as if this was the last day I would see my family, my friends, and my district? Maybe because my name is in there five times now that I turned seventeen a few months ago? I pushed my thoughts aside, and went back to work, assuming that the heat was getting to me, and I was worrying for nothing, although I still couldn't shake the feeling this was my last day in District eleven.

After dusk the work day in the fields ended on a normal day, but with the reaping being tomorrow, we were sent home an hour earlier. As soon as I walked through the door I heard two voices bickering back and forth with each other, as usual Mom was tense this time of the year, ever since she lost her own younger sister in the Games, and it was Dad's job to attempt calming her down, but with no such luck this time. I sighed as I realized I would have to listen to this all night, and so would my sisters as well. Speaking of the two, I spotted them on their cot, went over to them, and sat down next to the two small eleven year old twins.

"How long have they been going at it now?" I asked, annoyed.

"Too long!" Fawn groaned as she fell back on the small mattress for dramatic effect, causing Sola to giggle at her twin's antics, and my lips to curl into a small smile. As she stopped giggling Sola turned towards me with a look on her face as if remembering something important she needed to tell me.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" She stated as she turned to grab an object from the counter, and then skipping back to her spot on the bed, where she handed me a folded up piece of parchment with a seal indicating that it had yet to be opened and read. "Mr. Hain stopped by this morning on his way to district one and asked us to give this to you!" She smiled.

"Hey, he asked me to do it not you!" Fawn whined.

"No, he asked _us, _and you would've forgotten about it anyway!"

'_Well that's just great,' _I thought_ 'just what this house needs right now, more arguing.' _ I patted the two of them on their heads, messing up their frizzy brown hair and causing them to giggle in doing so, and stop arguing.

I thanked them and walked to my own cot where I lay down on the stiff mattress. Mr. Hain used to be close friends with my dad back when they were little kids before the uprising, and he is also the Victor of the fourth Hunger Games, one of the only people who can travel to and from all of the Districts, and being victor from District one meant that at the time of the reaping he had to return to District one. No one quite understands why, but after he won the Games he moved out to District twelve, and has lived in the Victor's Village ever since, saying that District one was too crowded, but I didn't believe that bullshit for a minute, there were several victors from Districts one and two, but there were still plenty of houses open in the Victor's Village. Every year for the reaping he has to leave his two kids in District twelve to go back to District one. His oldest child is his son, and he was what I thought to be a mirror image of his dad after the Games, because from what my dad has told me Hain was a completely different person before being thrown into the Games and came back exactly as the Capitol wanted, a cold blooded murder. Because in the Games it's either kill and survive, or refuse and die. And there's only one way a Victor can choose, 'cause they're obviously still alive.

Although I may not be a fan of Hain, or his son, but his daughter, Charm, and I write whenever there's a chance to, and for a little fifteen year old girl who never has and probably never will have to work because her father was a victor, she is surprisingly bright and opinionated, and as odd as it may be, she's a good friend of mine. Whenever Hain stops by to visit my father he brings a letter from Charm to give to me, that's the only way for us to communicate throughout the Districts.

Recently in our letters she has been talking about the Games, with the combination of her letter, and my gut feeling earlier I rip into the letter out of curiosity.  
I reread every word of the small paragraph several times, it's not like her to be so blunt in her letters, unless her father or brother are leaning over her and watching her every move, or she fears her father will read them on his train ride here. The last two sentences in the letter is what draws my eye every time, 'I'm going through with my idea and you are welcome to join if you wish, if you re-read our past letters you might understand, or you will understand tomorrow morning at nine. But before you decide whether to join me or not, think of the consequences.'

I put the letter in my stash of them I kept under my pillow, and I go outside telling my family I need to get some fresh air, but that was a lie. My feet start to make their way towards the District Eleven Town Hall, subconsciously moving on their own while I decipher the letter in my head, only knowing Charm through her letters made it hard to predict what she might have in mind with her ideas. Was she planning on going into the Games? I have never seen her or talked about survival skills with her in our letters, but I had a feeling that for her going into the Games was practically committing suicide, she wasn't that stupid was she. As I walked with the questions swirling around in my head, I thought back on what she may have mentioned of the Games before and if that might help me decode her message.

I was so distracted by my thoughts I hadn't noticed I had reached the Hall, and nearly tripped on the concrete front steps of the building, when it hit me. My gut feeling earlier and the letter could be linked together; because of the letter I now knew my gut feeling was right, that today was my last day in District eleven and that tomorrow my name would be one of once announced as tribute. I now realized that I had known subconsciously what would happen, and that my feet had brought me on a path to the District Hall for a reason.

As I entered the building, a blast of cold air hit my face- this was one of the few buildings in all of District Eleven to have air conditioning, while people in every other building in the District were sweating like pigs in the heat. My thoughts wondered thinking about what it must be like to work in here compared to the work outside or in the merchant shops. I shook the thought out of my head as it was unimportant as to why I was here, to put my name in as tesserae. Sure my family wasn't starving, but I could get the grain for them, in case something happened and I couldn't provide my part in the income of our household, although it did put my name in the reaping an extra five times, doubling what it had been before. The lady at the desk told me I couldn't receive the grain for a few days as they had run out and were waiting for more. I nodded, in all honesty that was perfect, I didn't need my mother to become even more nervous than she already was, and I didn't need to be questioned by my father as to why I would put my name in more than was mandatory.

I started the walk home, and soon became lost in my thoughts once again- I wasn't a hundred percent sure on the details but I had a pretty good handle on what Charm's idea was. I had a list of a few things I knew would happen. One this whole thing was real, it wasn't just a dream, and I wasn't imagining any of this. Two, at tomorrow's reaping my name would be one of the two called over that would ring across the districts loud speakers to be a tribute in the twenty first Hunger Games. And last, but not least, within the next three weeks, I would be dead.

** So what did ya think? Please review to tell me what you think, I can only get better if I know what I need to work on. I will attempt to update once a week but I'm in the middle of marching season right now, and possibly speech team so… in other words I have a lot on my plate at the moment but I promise I won't leave you hanging for more than two or three weeks. **

**Hope you liked it!**

**~firefox157~**


	3. Chapter 2

** Hey people, so first off thank you so much for coming back to read more of my story, I really appreciate it! ^_^**

** Okay so here is chapter two, and sorry that chapter one was a bit short but the chapters should be getting longer as I go along, this one is a bit longer than the first one. Also so you guys don't get confused with the POV the story is written in will change in a cycle between the four main characters, by the end of this chapter you will have meet two and by the end of the last chapter you will meet all of them! Woohoo!**

**Alrighty then, I'll shut up again and let you read it!**

**Enjoy!**

A Different Time. Chapter Two.

Charm POV.

Dad left yesterday morning to go to District one for the reaping today, a part of me was disappointed he left but another part was glad so he could give my letters to Aura, Leo, and Grey, if they didn't understand them at first they would after today's reaping at nine. I sighed it would be a long next couple of weeks and maybe my last too. Well, might as well get ready I told myself. I slipped on my white dress with blue trim on the bottom, it was rather plain but it was perfectly fine considering it would help me blend in, after all I would be standing out most of the time today.

Leo, Aura, and Grey are the only people I could communicate with outside of the district, their parents were close friends with my dad before the uprising and they all had kids about my age, so we had sent letters back and forth using my dad as the messenger. I sent the same thing in the past few letters to all of them, the only problem is I had to be EXTREMLY blunt so if anyone read them they wouldn't think anything of it, I wondered if my idea and choices are idiotic, am I asking for a death wish, or if it actually makes sense outside of my imagination. I sighed again and continued getting ready for the reaping which was only a half an hour away now. I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked normal, average height for a fifteen year old, long slightly curly blonde hair, which I had pushed a small headband into to keep it back, and even though my dad was a victor I was rather skinny. I silently laughed at myself remembering all of the nights I would go without food because I got so lost in a book, I had buried myself into the pages of words my mother had in her library, forgetting about the need to eat. As soon as the memory of my mother came back to my head I immediately looked at the charm bracelet on my left wrist and the slight smile on my face faltered. I took a deep breath in.

_ 'I'm doing this for you, mom'_ I thought, and it was true. A few years ago I found one of my mother's old diaries in her library and it gave me a new perspective on things here in Panem, wondering if this is how it's really supposed to be, it also gave me a certain spark that willed me to find who I really was, not just a spoiled victors daughter everyone had thought I was.

"Come on, Charm!" A voice from downstairs boomed. "We need to leave or we'll be late. I slipped my black shoes on and walked down the steps.

"Geez Taino, don't get your panties in a twist." I teased, after all my older brother did need to learn to lighten up at times. He just scoffed at me. I wondered what he would think of the reaping today, it was the last one where he could be chosen, but the odds were in his favor, we never had to put our names in more than once a year, we had everything we needed unlike so many in our District. We began walking to town square in silence, even though we were siblings we looked nothing alike and we were nothing alike, there were so many differences I couldn't name them all. He had short, straight black hair while mine was long, slightly curled and blonde, he had dark brown eyes, and mine were a light green, he was tall and muscular, I was average sized with little amounts of muscle but not nearly as much as Taino. Dad had always spent time with him and I knew why, he praised Taino for everything he did leaving me in the dark, ever since mom...

I feel my eyes begin to water and I had to blink it away before anyone could possibly notice, I cannot, and will not cry today, it's too important to have my emotions in check today and not all over the place.

We enter the square where there is little noise, people whispering, a few mothers weeping wishing they won't have to give up their children, it's sick. The whole idea of the Hunger Games is sick, making children murderers in order to survive, and forcing the parents to watch their loved ones die, only to have the one that killed a part of their lives, a part of themselves, praised. This isn't how things are supposed to be and people need to realize that they play a bigger part in Panem then they know, the workers and providers of Panem could easily blockade the Capitol or refuse to work, but everyone is too scared, scared of Snow. I had to admit just thinking about Snow made my spine shiver, something about him seemed off, and you could see that if you simply looked him in the eyes, they were full of self pride, injustice, and I can't quite describe it but if I could I would use the word evil.

I went to the appropriate section I belonged in for the reaping and watch others do so as well, wondering who would be picked and who wouldn't. After a few minutes it was finally nine o'clock, the time of District Twelve's Reaping, followed by District Eleven at ten and so on.

"Good morning, people of District Twelve!" the cheery voice blasted over the loud speakers almost loud enough to make one lose their hearing. This year we had a new escort Lynia, who was even perkier and annoying than the last, which I didn't think was even possible until now, and it looked like the color Blue threw up all over her as she was covered in it from head to toe. "Welcome to the twenty first annual Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!" The Capitol accent was too thick to be faked like some years before as it echoed beyond the speakers. "But before picking this year's tributes, it's time for the film to play." She smiled, and giddily clapped her hands. The film, shown every year to remind us why these Games exist, using propaganda to change people's opinions about the uprising and how it was 'morally wrong', and 'an unnecessary term of bloodshed caused by those who rebelled', but it's all just a lie to get people to side with them rather than siding with the truth.

As the film came to an end Lynia made her way back to the microphone.  
"Well now, wasn't that lovely?" I can sense the annoyance of the crowd before she can finish her sentence. "Now then ladies first!" She says in a singsong like manner, her heals clicking against the concrete stage beneath her as she walks to the pool of paper notes, stopping as she plucks a small rectangle out of hundreds, maybe even thousands, and then resuming again as she retreats back to her microphone. Clearing her throat before announcing the name,

"Jasmine Everdeen." All eyes turn to a very small eighteen year old dark haired girl, who was known as the apothecary's daughter in town and people cleared a pathway for her to the stage. As she slowly makes her way towards the stage I feel the anger bubble up inside me, why should someone who helps save lives have to die for no reason, why should she have to kill because someone chose her at random? What about the family she will never have if she dies in the Games? Why do people have to have their lives ripped away from them for this? Why should anybody? The anger inside of me wells up and I can't be patient anymore, I push my way through the crowd of girls around me until I get to the aisle, the Peacekeepers notice and start to advance towards me before I say the four words I've planned for so long. If only I could see my father's face now.

"I volunteer as Tribute!" I know all eyes are on me, I can feel the stares, but I don't care. There's a silence and even the Peacekeepers are shocked because they stop dead in their tracks. No one says a word as I advance towards the stage, I didn't notice before, but I'm shaking out of nervousness, this could be the last time I see home. Jasmine is the first to do anything as she leaves the stage, her eyes glued to the ground to avoid looking at me, and I make my way up the steps.

"Well, it's about time District twelve finally has a volunteer!" Lynia recovers. "And she is the Victors daughter, Charm Hain!" There's a silence as the district is awe-struck, and this makes me wonder what the other districts think of me now, my pulse quickened as no one seemed to tear their gaze from me.

Lynia clears her throat to get everyone's attention, "Now time for the boys!" This time the clicking of her heals seem slower, more distant, a part of me can't believe what I just did, even though I had planned to volunteer, right now everything feels like a dream, so close but so far out of reach at the same time. All noises are muffled and I'm surprised my legs haven't given out yet.

"... Taino Hain!" is what pulls me back to reality and my eyes widen. 'No! No, how is that possible?!' I thought to myself. His name was only in there six times, it shouldn't even be possible the chances are too slim unless- unless dad rigged it, and it made since. Dads been training Taino to fight, training him to go into the Games ever since he was four, and now, the last year he could be chosen, he was. I mentally scolded myself- I really should have seen this coming.

We were ushered into the District Hall into separate rooms so people could come say goodbye to us. The first person to come see me was Anya, my friend from the Seam, I had often taken her family whatever food I could spare to give them, without causing suspicion, from my house so that they wouldn't starve. The Peacekeepers tell us we have three minutes, and as soon as she enters she runs and hugs me, tears start falling down her face as she realizes her family won't have nearly as much anymore, or that's what I imagine at least, I can't really tell what she's thinking as she won't say a word. When the Peacekeepers open the door again she says two words before leaving,

"Be careful." I smile, it's at least a bit reassuring that someone cares about you when you're about to risk your life for others, and I nod to answer her. No one comes in next, I'm not shocked I didn't really have any close friends here anyway, but I was surprised when Jasmine came in after the short pause.

"Why?" she asked in a small voice. "Why did you volunteer for me? Did you do it out of pity, did you feel sorry for me?" her voice rising as she continues. "I don't need you to take my place out of pity, just do you can feel self righteous, little miss high and mighty!" Her voice continues to yell while I sit there and listen, she's at a point where she's so angry tears start pouring out of her eyes.

"It's okay." I try to comfort her. "And you have no need to worry; I didn't do this because I pity you." She looks up disbelief mixing with the pool of unshed tears in her eyes."I did this to stop another innocent life from being taken." I hug her so the Peacekeepers won't hear when I whisper, "I'm doing this to end the Games forever, or die trying." I hear a sharp intake of breath from her and then the Peacekeepers come back in and escort her away leaving me alone in the small room again.

** So, I hope you enjoyed chapter two, and if you would be so kind please review so I know what you think because I can't exactly read minds through a computer screen and across oceans and I would like to know what you think and get a bit of feedback. Also I've seen other people do this so if you have any 'Questions for the Characters' PM me or review with a question and tell me who you want it to be directed at. Okay so that's it for now, also expect updates to be on the weekends.**

**Love ya.**

**~firefox157~**


	4. Chapter 3

**Here we go guys chapter three is up!**

**Also like I said this Chapter is in a different character's point of view. And another thing I know that the description thing says that one of the Characters is Katniss, no I did not do that to get more views, it's because she will be in this story just not until the end of it so… yeah. And also I feel kinda bad for asking this, but PLEASE REVIEW! I need to know what you guys think of my writing and if you like the story, so please please please please review, it would be greatly appreciated! :D**

**Anyway here's chapter three, ENJOY!**

A Different Time. Chapter Three.

Grey POV.

Today's Reapings were rather surprising, or at least they were for those who didn't expect anything out of the ordinary. After getting Charm's letter yesterday and reading 'you'll understand at nine tomorrow' I realized that was the time of the Reaping in her district. I also understood what she was trying to accomplish, putting an end to the Games. When she first wrote me about the Games I found it funny how a Victor's daughter hates them, everyone would think that with everyone's life revolving around the games and not having to go into them they would enjoy watching just as much as the people in the Capitol do, but I guess we all are different than what we appear.

So far the only Reapings that stood apart from the others were obviously District twelve, with the tributes being both of Hain's children, eleven, only because I saw the look in the girls eye which made me realize she was another person involved in Charm's plan, and I also recognized the name was one she had mentioned in her letters as the escort read it off the paper note. In the next two districts nothing out of the ordinary happened, but in District eight it was a different story, an eighteen year old boy was chosen, no one was surprised because his parents had over ten children and he was the oldest so he provided the tesserae. As he was walking up to the stage his three year old sister and four year old brother ran up to him, and clung onto his legs, tightly hugging them by the looks of it not wanting to say their final good bye to him. The peacekeepers brought his father over to pick up the two children take them back to the appropriate spot as the boy- Leo I think was his name- made his way onto the platform raised in front of his district. District five had just finished and next was mine, Four. I have about twenty minutes left, I made sure my shirt was 'nice and nea't as I took care of the buttons on the blue cotton and slicked my dark brown hair back. I went to help my dad get my brother ready to go, nothing exiting happened between then and the reaping, the film was played, and everyone was lined up as usual. A girl was picked, but when they announced the boys name, a woman in the back began wailing, crying hysterically, and the boy tried to run back to who I'm pretty sure was his mother, only to be lifted by Peacekeepers and carried off to the stage. When I saw this I realized it was now or never, I stepped into the aisle and started walking behind the boy being carried up to the stage.

"You can set him down now," I yelled to the Peacekeepers ahead of me, they turned around in shock but I kept walking. "Because I'm volunteering to take his spot." I declared and continued walking to the stage as if I were perfectly fine with it, not pausing at the steps like so many had before me. I shook hands with the small girl tribute Jez, who was only twelve, and we were ushered inside. My family came to say their final fair well to me, my mom trying to hold back tears, as my dad handed me an old necklace, it was a black string with a shark tooth on it and a few beads, when my dad put it in my hand I decided that this was the trinket I would take in the Arena with me. I hugged my parents as I said goodbye, and bent down to my seven year old brother who let the tears freely fall on his face.

"Don't worry Kyne, I'll see you again, soon okay? But you've gotta be a big strong boy for mom and dad okay?" He nodded his head.

"Promise you'll come back?" He asked shakily as he extended his pinky to me, tears streaming from those huge orbs of blue. I felt horrible making a promise I knew I couldn't keep, but it was something I had to do. I took his pinky in mine.

"I promise Kyne, and I'll always be with you, here." I said pointing to his heart, Kyne was the only one who could soften me like that, and make me sound all cheesy but it was what he needed. He latched himself onto me taking his last embrace, and that was when the time was up. The time I had left with my family fell to zero, I know I won't survive the Games but that was it, I had just given up my family.

Next was the train, the train had to stop at every district and it took about four hours on average to get from one district to the next, or so I've heard, but I know that the final three districts and the Capitol are farther away and that's what made the average time so long. We were in a car for several hours with our escort blabbering away about who knows what. When the train finally arrived it was about five in the morning, we boarded and chose a room to sleep in, girls' rooms on one side of the train, boys' on the other.

The next morning, it was nine when I woke up, and we had yet to pick up the tributes from one and two. There were twelve lounge cabins on the train were we could meet each other, probably to form alliances to make the Games more interesting, and later meet our escorts and mentors in the respective cabin, but for now I had to go and find a certain three other tributes. I went from compartment to compartment, walking through several stopped conversations caused by none other than myself, and a stare from the Hain boy as he was alone in one compartment probably awaiting the career tributes. Two more down and I was in the right place, before the door automatically opened I could hear talking from inside, and for once it didn't stop after I walked in, taking the seat next to Charm, as it was the only open seat at the table.

"Nice of you to join us this morning, sleeping beauty." The voice next to me spoke as her hand offered me a roll. I smirked at her as I took the roll from her fingers.

"Did you just call me beautiful?" I teased back at her causing her to laugh slightly. After smiling at my own joke I needed to know who was chosen after I volunteered. "So who else is there in the Games?" I asked, while tearing into the roll, after all it is a good idea to know your competition when you're put into the Arena bloodbath with them.

"The District Three's don't seem like much of a threat, a boy thirteen years old and the girl can hardly walk without tripping over her own feet. Although, that could have been from the nerves, or she could have done that as a façade in attempt to trick her competition." Aura explained before beginning to eat the eggs and toast before her again, which I ripped into as soon as the avox placed them in front of me.

"District two seems like the one to beat as usual." The red haired boy said between shovels of food. "The guy looks pretty muscular and he's eighteen, but the girl is sixteen and small, we will have to wait and see what she does in training before deciding if she's a real threat or not."

"She's a two, of course she'll be a threat, and we can't rule anyone out just by appearance." I stated.

"Grey's right we can't rule anyone out for sure yet. And the Ones seem pretty good too, both seventeen and both probably trained by the same trainers who coached previous victors, so that gives them even more of an edge." Charm said, propping her chin on her hand while her elbow rested on the table.

"So then, idea girl, what's the plan?" Aura questioned, and Leo and I turned to look at the blonde awaiting her answer, wondering the same thing after reading the blunt letter she sent yesterday.

"The plan is to stop the Games once and for all, to make sure no more innocent lives are lost for no reason like they are now. We have to start our own revolution, show the people in the Districts they can fight back, that they're the reason the Capitol is able to run like it does, that they can stop all of this. We need to give both the districts and the people of the Capitol a reason to hate Snow even more and to not be afraid of him. To show them that even a little rebellion can have a big effect. We need a spark to light a fire, that will blow up in Snows face."

_'Damn'_ I thought, _'for a little girl she has big ideas.'_

"And how do we get the districts to realize?"

At this she smirked "Ever heard of leading by example?"

"So we start a revolution by..." Leo trailed off with his question, awaiting the answer.

"Starting little and the progressing from there, do the unthinkable, what no one has ever done in the Games and what no one has ever thought of doing before. And stretch the Capitol as far as you can, try to make them see the Games for what they really are, pain and suffering not entertainment."

"Okay, so there's no set plan really, pretty much just wing it?" I asked in slight confusion, she has the idea set just not how to accomplish it.

She let out a sigh. "In a why yes and in a way no, because we know what we have to do but by doing so it's pretty much throwing caution to the wind. Look I know it's not a perfect plan but it's all I've got, it's not like I could ask for advice from anyone on how to start a Revolution or from you guys in case the letters got intercepted."

"Well, it's as good as it can get for now, but what about surviving in the Arena?"

"After the gong rings, get your butt out of there get away from the cornucopia. If we start off with a group people will get suspicious so split into pairs, Aura and Leo, and Grey and I, then we'll need to meet up again, and go from there. Also, we can't let people know about our alliances, the pairs yes but not the whole group, so act like we don't know one another in training sessions and around the other tributes. And make sure to be careful around the careers."

"And Taino." Leo added. After that we all ate in silence, and over the next few hours we were in the cabin discussing strategies and what to do in the Games until the train had stopped to get the last of the tributes, and we were sent to our respective carts in the train. District four's was the fourth one, wow didn't see that coming. My mentor was lecturing me on how to gain sponsors, and how to get people to route for me while in the Arena, I was taking it all in, so I knew a way to make the people in the Capitol love me and maybe that would help my chances of survival, if someone else doesn't kill me first that is.

**So, hope you liked it and like I said PLEASE REVIEW, I REALLY REALLY want to know what you think of my story and if you have any ideas or anything for this story PM or review and I might use them if you want me to, and if you have a story that you want me to read send it to me ect.**

**So yeah, thanks for reading again, I'm really thankful for those of you who have been reading this.**

**~Love ya!~**

**BYE! ^_^**


	5. Chapter 4

** Hey guys so, this isn't one of my best chapters, more of a filler chapter than anything else. It's basically setting up the characters and their personalities so you can get to know them a bit better! :D And also please review, cause if people don't start reviewing I'm going to have to go all meany face on you guys and stop posting chapters until I get some feedback! PLEASE REVIEW I NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK AND I NEED MOTIVATION TO KEEP THIS STORY GOING!**

** Also just a little update on me, I might not be able to post as often because I have rehearsals for learning and cleaning a color guard routine for my marching bands trip to Disney this Thanksgiving break, so I will be a bit preoccupied with that. And also my Geometry and Spanish grades are starting to slip a bit and I really need to focus on that. But if all things go according to plan I won't leave you hanging for too long!**

**Okay enough of the boring stuff, ENJOY!**

A Different Time. Chapter Four.

Leo POV.

My mentor was talking to me about how to survive in the Arena, how to get sponsors, what to do and what not to do, when Exana, the girl tribute from my district, interrupted him, awestruck when she spotted the Capitol from the trains window.

"Oh my wow." Were the words to come out of her mouth, causing me to laugh at her choice of words as I walked over to the window next to her. It was rather impressing though, the buildings towered in comparison to those in district eight, some being probably up to two hundred fifty to three hundred feet tall. People here must feel so minuscule when they walk through the streets. Besides towering into the clouds the buildings were all silver or grey, shiny and we're made out of what looked like metal. Funny how the foundation for the heart of Panem was cold, hard, unmoving polished metal and that wasn't just the buildings. I knew Charm's intentions are pure and she is trying to do the right thing, but I think the whole idea has us in over our heads. I agree that the Games need to come to an end and everything but I don't get how four tributes can make that much of a difference, even though we are in the spotlight these next couple weeks, I just didn't see how it would work how she wanted it to. I will admit though Charm has the plan a lot better planned than I thought she would, or than I could ever do. As the train tracks went from over the water to land, I started to see the crowds of people waiting for the train to stop and waiting just to catch a glimpse of us, rather than just seeing us on the television screen during the Reapings. As we got closer to the heart of the Capitol the crowds became more congested, and the spaces for them got larger.

The train finally stopped and the pool of people surrounding us was amazingly large, people packed into every inch of what was once open space. Peacekeepers were sent outside ahead of district one to make an aisle for tribute to walk down to the remake center, I was amazed, there were probably more people in that small area of space than in my entire District.

Ahead of me I saw Grey, smiling, waving, and even winking to people in the crowd obviously soaking up all the attention he could. I followed in his steps and waved. People were screaming at us, not anything bad, and even I could admit I got lost in being the center of attention, it was so foreign to me I didn't I know what else to do except for following the examples in front of me. By the time we were shuffled into the remake center my face was sore from grinning from ear to ear for so long, as a matter of fact I think that's the longest time I've ever smiled. I turned around and saw a few more groups coming in, when I saw District eleven, I couldn't turn my eyes away. Aura, she looked... absolutely stunning. There were rays from the sun dancing off of her chocolate brown skin, the way her long, glossy black hair shone in the light, and her eyes were breathtaking, I felt as if I could get lost forever in the sea of brown. I found myself staring at her until someone started pulling me away from the doorway.

Before I had wondered what it felt like to be in love, to know who you're other half is, who the person you were meant to spend all of your life with, create a family, all of that, but when I got Charm's letter and when I was chosen for the Hunger Games I realized that I would never know what it was like to be completely in love with someone, and for them to love you back. Now I had discovered that I hadn't missed being in love, I was experiencing it right now with a harvester girl from District eleven, scoffing to myself I wondered what my little sisters would think of this tragic love story. The smile on my face is no longer existent as I thought of my family, the reason I agreed to Charm's plan, to protect my little sibling from having to experience this, so they don't have to become murderers, like I will in a few days. Even before getting Charm's letter yesterday, I knew I was going into the Games, after all being the oldest of ten kids I provided the tesserae, my name has been put into the Reaping bowl thirteen times a year, one for each member of my family and one for the mandatory year requirement, this year I had my name in there a total of sixty five times, in return no one in my family died from starvation. I was bound to be chosen sooner or later whether I wanted it to or not. I didn't have a choice in being chosen.

My thoughts were ripped from me once again as a was gently pushed into a curtain drawn make-shift room, a blue hospital like gown was thrown at me, and a voice ordered me telling me to strip and put the gown on. I did as told, and sat on the table in the remake room, waiting for my team to enter. Once they did they hosed me down, several times, and ripped practically all of the facial hair off of my face with hot wax and paper. They cut my red hair with a very loud electric razor, saying it was extremely too long for my facial structure, and almost shaved my head completely in doing so, leaving it at about an inch and a half in length, after which I was hosed down repeatedly again, which was starting to get rather irritating.

After about another hour with my team of overly colored, accessorized, and rather _different_ stylists, I was hauled to a different room, about half the size of the one I was in just before, and one with solid walls, where I was supposed to wait for my main stylist to come in. After a while of waiting, again, a woman with hair covered in sections of green, orange, and pink, ridiculously long black and yellow eye lashes, and a bit too tight of a over the top Capitol dress entered.

"Congratulations young man on being chosen to participate in the twenty first Hunger Games! Oh, you must be so honored and beside yourself to be in this miraculous event! I'm your stylist, the best one there is if you ask anybody, Flora, and you must be the District eight boy tribute- Leo was it? Oh, your family must be so proud you are here in the Capitol experiencing the extravagant life here, oh how you must be overwhelmed by everything, and how different everything is here, hm?" She squeaked out in a very annoying, very high voice that sounded like some sort of animal being tortured, never taking a breath in her rant making me wonder how she wasn't panting for breath, and how her voice didn't give out when it sounded like something was dying. "Well, you're not much of a talker, are you?" She began again, not even giving me a chance to get a syllable out. "Well, that's fine, I don't have to worry about you sounding good, I just have to make sure you look absolutely outstanding for the tribute parade later today. Speaking of which we should discuss your outfit! Well, you are from District eight aren't you? So you should know all about fashion and clothes am I right? Gee-whiz boy, if someone is asking you a question then you should answer not just sit there and being quiet! Surely your mother taught you to respect others and respond to them when they ask you something, correct? Well, apparently no-"

"I would respond if you gave me a second to instead of blabbering away assuming false accusations about my mother, so shut the hole in your face, stop blurting out useless shit, and let me talk!" I exploded. I couldn't help it- I couldn't take anymore of her mindless rambling or her voice- I didn't care if it sounded harsh if it just got her to shut up for two seconds.

"Well, why didn't you say so boy?" She ran her hand through my hair as she asked another annoying as Hell question.

I pushed her hand away from my head, "Because you wouldn't let me get a syllable, much less a word in at all, and because I'm from eight and my mother is seamstress doesn't automatically make me know anything about clothes besides how to sew them together."

"Aw, phooey, that's what they say every time, each year I get my hopes up about getting to talk to a new source about style, but I get the same reaction every single time, although usually the men are more _polite_ than you are." She pouted as my eyes rolled in annoyance. "Well then, as for your outfit."

-Later-

I felt absolutely ridiculous.

I was dressed up as a spool of thread, with a round base at my neck and another directly above my knees, plastic covering everything in-between, and an orange rope as the string, I was amazed I could even move my arms. I did feel bad for Exana though, her stylist had her dressed as a needle so our outfits would 'coordinate', they had her in a shiny silver one piece leotard, covering everything from her neck to her toes and a pointed hat was shoved atop her head for the needles point. At least it wasn't as bad as District Seven, whose primary resource was lumber and they were dressed up as trees.

I turned to the see the others to see if any of their costumes were as shity as ours or sevens, as I turned I saw none other than Aura, who was glowing. Once again she was breath taking even in her costume, a pair of denim overalls and a shiny golden long sleeved shirt. Her hair was what I didn't expect, it was straight which had made it longer, and it was sparkling in the light. Literally, it was sparkling. Her stylist must have put gold sparkles in it, adding to her beauty. I internally scolded myself as I remembered I needed to be focused on getting sponsors, not on Aura, not on love, I wasn't even sure if it was real or if I just needed something to help me cope with the fact my death was coming soon, or even if she felt the same way my thoughts lead me to believe. This time I actually slapped myself in the face for letting my thoughts distract me yet again. I turned around as I realized she was watching me and saw me stare at her, along with slapping myself.

_'Well, I sure as Hell screwed that up.' _ And just as I thought it couldn't get any worse, I saw Grey looking at me with one eyebrow raised, apparently seeing my like outburst type reaction, and after a few moments the confusion left his face, and an all knowing smirk replaced it. And just as I felt like dying then and there and saving myself the embarrassment of having to explain it to him later, the Chariot jerked forward.

_'Great, so much for that idea now.'_

** Hope you guys liked reading and please remember to review, or else. I really don't want to stop posting because I personally hate it when other authors do this to me, but still I do need (and greatly appreciate) at least a little bit of feedback.**

**Like I said I really don't want to do this, but after chapter five if I don't have any reviews at all, I'm afraid I'll have to.**

**So guys don't make me do this!**

**Love you guys and thanks again for reading!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Okay so here we go, chapter five!**

**So this chapter goes back to Aura's point of view, just in time for the Tribute Parade. I know I know this may be a bit boring, but it'll get better.**

**Also last thing before I shut up, I really need reviews and this is the last warning, if I don't get an reviews or PM, or any feedback I'm going to have to stop posting chapter until I do, I need to know if this story is worth continuing or not, and if I don't get any feedback or anything I'm going to have to assume no one is interested in my story. So PLEASE REVIEW so I don't have to do that! Okay so enjoy!**

A Different Time. Chapter Five.

Aura POV.

I looked around at the other tributes hoping I didn't look as ridiculous as I felt. I saw district seven dressed as trees and felt a bit better, but I still looked around somewhat curious as to what other districts were forced into wearing. District one, the luxury district, was dressed up as what looked like giant peacocks, multicolored feather and jewels everywhere, they even made sure to add a couple on their faces. District two, the masonry, were dressed in silver armor, like a champion in some of the first Hunger Games, back when they told us the Victors were to look like gladiators who were competitors in an ancient fight to the death. The threes were covered in wires, and disks to represent technology. District four, I laughed a bit when I saw the girl, she was in a costume that made her look half fish half human. And when I looked next to her I saw Grey in what I assumed to be fishing gear, with a fishing pole in his hand as well, not the worst I've seen yet but not the best either. District five, being power, had been in costumes making them look like a power plant themselves, six was decorated in different parts of modes of transportation that must be seen here in the Capitol. Seven and eight were probably the worst, dressed as trees and then a spool of thread and a needle, it made me relived that I wasn't from either one of those districts. Nine and ten weren't much better though, as stocks of grain and the latter as livestock, both representing their district product rather well. Then there was us, and lastly there was district twelve, Charm and her brother were dressed like coal miners, which included covering her hair with black dust to match instead of her usual bright blonde color.

I looked back at Leo, I felt bad for him having to wear an idiotic costume, but when I turned around I saw him looking at me, I noticed they cut his hair while in the remake center, and now that it was shorter I had to admit it made him look a lot better, more mature than before, and more handsome. And that was when our eyes meet from across the room, I could almost swear I got lost in his dark blue eyes for a moment. When he realized we were making eye contact I saw his face pinked a bit more than usual, but what surprised me was when he slapped himself and turn around. Was he staring at me before and I didn't notice? And why did he slap himself? I thought to myself. Those thoughts disappeared and new ones took their place as the chariot I was in jerked forwards as the parade began.

'Here we go again.'  
Before we even reached the crowd I could hear them screaming, chanting, and calling out their favorites names, and the announcer calls out the different districts as their chariots go rolling down the runway, describing the outfits, somewhat bored after a while because most districts are the same as the years before. He also chuckles at a few of the over the top ones as well, making sure to sound polite after doing so to not offend anyone.

As our chariot advanced onto the runway, I heard my name being called several times causing a smile to form on my lips, and also reminding me of what our mentors had told us, make friends, smile and wave, even flirt to the audience, these were the people who could end up being the difference between life and death in the arena after all. At that moment I let myself get lost in it all, the calling of my name repeatedly, waving to the audience with a wide smile spread across my face, I even winked at a few people in the audience causing even more hollering. All other noises where tuned out by the crowd, and I felt disappointment start to sink in as we reached a stop on the end of runway and President Snow silenced the crowd.

"Welcome!" His voice sent shivers down my spine- there was a certain tone in it that made it sound cold. "Welcome to the twenty first annual Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor." He repeated just as all the escorts had during the Reapings, and as usual it annoyed the shit out of me, these Games are designed to have the odds be in no one's favor. "And congratulations to all of you for being selected to participate in this Grand event!" His acid voice resumed over the loudspeaker, booming across every corner of Panem. "Good luck, and enjoy your stay in the Capitol. Ladies and gentlemen let us give a round of applause to this year's tributes!" His demand was immediately followed by the deafening sound of cheerful and excited clapping from everyone exempt the ones they were clapping for, us.  
After the parade we were ushered into a large room where our stylists and mentors waiting for us.

"Congratulations girlie," my mentor walked towards me saying, "I wouldn't have thought that the ice princess would melt so quickly." He teased talking about back on the train when I wouldn't talk and when I did I showed my absolute distaste and disgust regarding the Games, not even trying to sugarcoat it at all.  
"It was all just a show you know." I retorted in a repulsed tone. He looked towards the side and I followed his trail of vision, Leo was looking at me again, why did he keep staring, what my costume really that hideous?  
"Well fine then ice princess- let's get you to your room." More of a demand than a request as he pushed me along.  
-Later-

I had just found out that rooming for the tributes would be different this year, because the victor last year had decided to 'do it' with the other tribute from her district before entering into the Arena and she became pregnant, so the game makers and Snow decided to pair tributes of the same gender together this year, and my roommate ended up being Charm, I was rather happy about that especially since I didn't get stuck with any careers. We had the penthouse suite, and I have no idea how the Hell this happened but Leo and Grey were on the floor right below us, which told me there might be some game maker plan in the works here, but I pushed it aside as I couldn't think of why they would.

The elevator made a ding sound as it reached our floor, I couldn't believe what I saw before me, the furniture the styling, everything was eccentric, and foreign to me I had no idea what to think of it besides the fact it looked like a rainbow had thrown up all over.

"What, are you disgusted by the room décor as well ice princess?" I huffed as my mentor became annoying, yet again. Could someone remind me why I got stuck with an annoying asshole as my mentor? I asked myself in rage as I walked away from him toward the couch where Charm was watching a recording of the parade earlier, hoping over the back of it and landing a few feet away from her. We waited until we were the only two up and then we could talk somewhat openly, we still had to be careful of what we said because the room might be bugged. We sat in a comfortable silence watching the recording.

"You know, you did a good job buttering up the crowd tonight, I could tell they loved it." She finally spoke.

"Thanks, I thought I would have done horrible at it, but it was so easy to get lost in the moment, wasn't it?" She nodded in agreement, and that was when I saw her come onto the screen. I realized her name really did fit her- she charmed the crowd so easily giggling, genuinely smiling, waving flirtatiously, and even blowing a couple kisses into the crowd, causing uproar in the crowd. "Wow..." I was in awe, and also jealous of her in a sense as she would probably have more sponsors than anyone else, especially if you considered who her father was.

"What?" She asked while her brow furrowed in confusion.

"You! Did you not see how you controlled everyone there?"

"I guess a little bit, but it wasn't all that great besides we still have interviews and training, and with my luck I'll end up screwing up one or maybe both."

"Whatever." Somehow I couldn't see how she could do anything like that after how she had done in the parade. Another silence came and right before I went to bed I thought of something. "Hey Charm?"

"Hm?"

"What made you think of this idea, to come here and try to make a difference?" She looked shocked at my question for a bit and then her confusion turned into a soft smile.

"A few years ago I started thinking how the families and the kids in the Arena must feel, but I decided to leave it be and stop thinking about it, that's when I was in my mom's old library I had stumbled across a few notes and a couple of her diaries. I decided to read them and they uncovered the truth hidden behind lies I had been told growing up, all her thoughts and ideas about Panem were invested into those pages, that's what made me realize that I didn't want to just some victors spoiled brat of a daughter, I didn't want to be someone that everyone despised with every fiber in their being, like how most people in district twelve feel about Taino and my dad. I didn't want to sit around being who I was expected to be, so I decided to go out and find how I was, and I ended up turning into who I was always meant to be. My mom lead me out of the darkness and into the light and I realized I could now do what she didn't, make a change in how all this works, and for the better."

I smiled back at her, this girl was raised to respect and honor the Games and Capitol, and has now gone against everything she was brought up to believe just to find the truth. She was more than I expected just like her letters she could keep surprising me no matter what.

"Your mom must have been something else?" I could tell she was proud of her, but I felt the need to ask anyway.

The smile on her face faded and for the first time I saw and innocent, young girl instead of the smart and determined, conniving girl I first meet, as the tears pooled into her eyes, causing the green orbs to look glossy. "She was, or at least from what I've read and known about her she was."

"What do you mean?"

"She died, not long after I was born and I have no memories of her, only when she visits me in my sleep which feels so real it's almost like a cruel joke." Her voice faded as it began to crack. She turned off the recording and started to walk down her hall. "Good night." A small voice escaped her lips in attempt not to appear weak, and I returned the gesture. The girl was smart beyond her years but one thing she lacked was the knowledge that having a weakness doesn't hurt you- it helps you grow in strength and character. I started thinking that maybe I wouldn't mind dying all that much if it is for something like this, to save lives and make a difference in the screwed up world we have today. People are living in fear of death, and people are dying every day hoping things change and that their loved ones will never have to experience the same hardships they have, that they will live a better and healthier life than what they can provide now. And I was one of those people; I couldn't stand it if Fawn or Sola were tributes in this game. Thinking about my District for the first time since I left home brought a pang to my chest, I would never see my friends and family after this, I would hear my sisters' laughter, my parents bickering, I wouldn't be able to work in the fields ever again, everything that was normal to me was now lost forever, and I could never get it back. The thought of leaving everything I thought to be normal and everything I loved behind was the worst thing I thought I could ever feel, even when I die I bet it won't be as painful as this.

_ 'My family'_, I thought. They would be watching but they still thought I had a chance of coming home, of winning and returning to them. _'Damn it, why didn't I tell them? I shouldn't have giving them a false sense of hope!'_ They would be devastated and it would be my fault, I let their hopes rise only to have them fall in the end.

**So this kinda ended one a sadder note, but anyway I hope you liked it!**

**If you did review and I'll post the next chapter soon. I'll make you guys a deal, since I've been a bit behind lately if I get reviews I'll post chapter six the same day!**

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**OKAY BYE!**


	7. Chapter 6

**Hey people so thanks for coming back again! Also I want to give a shout out to my first review, but it was a guest so that's kinda hard to do. But in response to that, I'm glad I could change your mind and thank you SO much for reading! **

**Anyway, this may just be my opinion but this is my favorite chapter, a bit of romance and action together, sorry if you don't like the romance, but you'll have to deal with it for this story because sure as heck have a LOT planned ^_^. Please read the authors note at the bottom as well, it's rather important.**

**So yeah, I think that's it. As usual I hope you enjoy and any and all feedback is welcome!**

A Different Time. Chapter Six.

Charm POV

I woke up early this morning after having a difficult time going to sleep last night, the sun hadn't taken its place in the sky yet so I went up onto the rooftop to watch it rise. I was weird seeing shiny towering buildings instead of the usual setting, the beautiful lush forest that surrounded twelve, the way the rays of sun made the buildings sparkle just wasn't as appealing as when they danced off the leaves and the bark of the trees, the picture never looking the same as the day before. It reminded me that for the past year, since I decided I would volunteer for the Games, I had snuck out of my house in the Victor's village and train in there, I would run, learn to make traps from a couple others that I had seen in there, probably some people from the Seam had set them up to catch a meal since it was hard to buy food with little or no money, they could at the very least trade what they caught for something edible. I would do anything that I could think of that might be of any use while I would be in the Arena, I had to be prepared. Over that year my speed had increased, as well as my agility, I practiced dodging around different obstacles, and there was even a small lake back there that I used to learn how to not drown in the water, if that skill would come in handy in the Arena I would take what I could get from it. Now I just had to see if it all had paid off when we go to training today, I was anxious to see what we were up against.

I started to wonder though, if what I did was right, dragging Leo, Aura, and Grey with me into this mess. I had pulled them away from their homes and families for a plan that might fail. There was a part of me wanting to ask them how they felt about it, but another part told me that would be one of the worst things I could do, I knew it was but I was still curious. I did have my brother and my dad, but dad took Taino to train almost all day every day, never paying more than ten seconds of attention on me. When I was younger they had to take me with them to see different experts and trainers (the only time we had gone out of District twelve until now) and I absorbed almost everything they had said, but I was never given a chance to test them and see if I was any good at handling a weapon until now.

A noise from behind me ripped me away from my thoughts, I took a hold of whatever was close to me that could be used as a weapon, a piece of piping was what had ended up in my hand, and spun around to see Grey. I sighed in relief realizing it was only him as he walked closer and began laughing at me. As he came over and sat down next to me he was still laughing, so in turn I smacked his arm.

"Geez, someone's on edge today." He started rubbing his arm. "And did you really need to hit me?" Now it was my turn to laugh at him.

"Did you really need to laugh at me and sneak up behind me?"

"Good point, so what are you doing up here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Yeah, but I did ask you first so you get to answer first." He smirked.

"I couldn't sleep well, so I came up here to see the sun rise, but it's not even close to how beautiful it is back in twelve."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, in four when the sun rises over the water it truly is amazing, but here the feel of everything is too cold." I nodded in agreement. "So then what's the plan for training today?" I sighed.

"I don't know whatcha got?"

"Oh so, you run out of ideas already?"

"No, you just need to start pulling your own weight around here." I teased as I playfully pushed him, causing a chuckle to escape from his lips.

"Well we could stay away from our strong suits until the evaluations, and then show the Game makers what we've got- by the way, what are you good at?" Now it was my turn to smirk.

"You'll just have to wait and see." I joked as I got up onto my feet.

"Fine then I won't tell you what I'm good at."

"Okay," I Shrugged "I can get it out of you anyway." I giggled at the look of disbelief that covered his facial features. "Come on we should go back down before any of the others get up." I offered a hand down to him- instead of taking it and getting up himself, he took my hand and pulled me back down to the ground. We wrestled me for a little bit until he had me pinned against the floor. "You wanna tell me now?" He whispered into my ear, sending a shiver down my spine, as quickly as I could I pushed him off.

"C-come on, let's go." I said turned away from him, I could tell I was blushing because my face felt hot.

"Aw, you sure we have to go back now?" He said while stretching out on the metal that made up the rooftop, while I debated his question in my head- we probably had at least a good half an hour until everyone else got up and we had to leave to go down to breakfast.

"Well, maybe we could stay up here for a little while longer."

"Good and by the way I at least know one of your strong suits now, you have some strength if you push me off so easily, and you also have your whit to be able to come up with this whole plan. You're legs also look pretty strong so I'm guessing you've been preparing for this in a while and that you're also fast on your feet, both mentally and physically."

"Okay so my turn now, you're from four so you are probably a good swimmer, also from making nets you must be somewhat good at weaving, you also have visible muscle so you have to have some strength, and I'm also taking a shot in the dark saying you have pretty good aim, as well as being at least a bit smart if you can come up with a plan for training."

"Nice work, now you'll just have to wait and see for the rest." I rolled my eyes at him, in a way he was full of himself but not cocky at the same time- god he was confusing. I sighed while leaning back to lie down on the cold metal today would be a long day. The silence between Grey and I didn't last long, as soon as my head touched the ground he started asking questions. "What was twelve like? I've never really heard anything about it there just that it's the least populated District in Panem."

"Well, it's pretty quiet most of the time- the miners head out to work getting up with the sun, and leave the mines when it sets. There are a few merchant shops in the middle of town, and then a few people from the Seam set up a several small stations in an abandoned building called the Hob. Most people have to go there for food, as it's the only place affordable for them. It's pretty sad though, seeing kids walk around, only skin and bones, never knowing when they may find food or what it could be. And then when accidents happen in the mines it's devastating for everyone. The thing I think I will miss the most about living there would be being able to go into the forest on the outskirts of the district, everything there was so beautiful and lush." I could feel the smile work its way onto my face just thinking about the forest. "What about four?"

"It's all surrounded by water." I waited for him to continue, but he never did.

"Is that all you can say about it?" There was no response so I took that as he wasn't very open to the idea of talking about his home.

"We should go downstairs now." He said, this time offering me a hand up, I took it and we walked downstairs.

-Later-

I couldn't believe my eyes.

Any weapon you could think of was in this room, polished and in cold hard metal, throwing knifes and stars, battle staffs, crossbows, clubs, staffs, war hammers, axes machetes, spears, swords, bow and arrows, slingshots, whips, maces, nun chucks, weapons that I've never seen before and didn't even know the names of. And my brother was in Heaven, I watched his face as we entered the room and it was the first time I had ever seen him smile, he went around the room making sure to test out everything at least once.

Although there was one thing that caught my eye and not Taino's was a pair of double elbow blades, I started to walk over to the rack they were on when the tribute girl from district two, Kali I think her name was, picked them up, she looked them over trying to figure out how to put them on and how to use them, only to cause them to fly out of her hands when she tried to use them on a practice dummy. They slid across the floor and landed a couple of feet away, allowing me to pick them up and put them on myself. I could feel a few pairs of eye on me as I approached the practice dummies. I knew Kali and Donzi, the district one boy tribute, were at least two of the pairs and assumed Taino and Grey were two more. I felt the weight of the blades right before reaching my target, spinning it in my grip before taking a swing at the dummy- they made a clean cut right through its abdomen, the top half falling to the ground seconds later. I smirked. From now on I knew that this would be my weapon of choice for evaluations. Still feeling eyes staring at me I made a couple more hits on a different dummy, making sure that they were sloppy and didn't hit the right spot I wanted them to. I didn't want any of the other tributes thinking I was a threat yet, so I made sure to make it look like I had a lucky first hit, and I made sure to show plenty of frustration with my messy work.

I put the blades back on the rack huffing in frustration, and then walking over to the snare and trap station. Grey casually walked over and once we were the only ones at the station we started talking.

"Damn princess, good thinking making the first time look like a lucky hit on purpose and I think I figured out your main strong suit finally, it was pretty obvious over there." I smiled at him.

"And tomorrow it'll be your turn to show me your main strong suit, deal?"

He smirked, "You've got yourself a deal, princess. And by the way after seeing that, I'm glad you and I have an alliance, otherwise I would be absolutely screwed."

"Glad to know you recognize talent when you see it." I teased, giving him a small push. "And by the way, you think you could stop calling me princess, it's getting on my nerves." His smirk got wider and there was a bit of an evil twinkle in his eye.

"Whatever you want, _princess_." Oh how I wanted my elbow blades back now.

"Don't push me Grey or I might have to get those blades back into my hands." I threatened. It probably wasn't the most intimidating threat I've ever given, if only I didn't have to hold that smile back.

**Alright guys there's chapter six! Hope you liked it, personally this was my FAVORITE chapter to write but that's just my opinion, so as always please review. Reviews are ALWAYS GREATLY APPRECIATED! :D So, hopefully you guys will stick around for the next chapter, but I need at least three reviews before I can do that, like I've said before I need to know people want to read this/like it to continue, cause otherwise there is not point on posting chapters. PLEASE SEND FEEDBACK!  
**

**Okay, I'm done with my little review lecture. **

**Love y'all and have a great week!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Hey people so I know I said I wouldn't update until I got 3 reviews, but it is Thanksgiving week and I'm leaving for Florida tomorrow for marching band so I thought I would just post a chapter! **** Although this does NOT mean that I will do this again without the amount of reviews I told you I needed. This time its three again, so as soon as I get three reviews I will post ASAP!**

**So enjoy the chapter and send a review my way if you like it. (Plus I think this is the longest chapter I've written yet! Woohoo!) **

Grey POV.

I woke up this morning as the sun was beginning to rise and I couldn't help but smile as thoughts of yesterday morning made their way into my mind. Being on the rooftop, talking to her and have her answer back in turn, learning whatever I could about her, just being there with her in the silence was amazing on its own.

As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes my feet started their way to the stairs going up to the rooftop again, running up the steps a bit too eagerly hoping to find her there again. As I opened the door to the roof I felt a cold breeze as it nipped at my chest which I now realized was bare, I had slept without a shirt and must have forgotten to put one on when I left my room. I let out a sigh of disappointment as I had realized I was the only one out here.

I went over to where I laid yesterday and sat down, looking up at the sky as the stars faded and the rays of sunlight strengthened, remembering the conversation we had and remembering how I felt like a total jackass when Charm had asked me about four. I had sat here and listened to her talk about district twelve, and even admitting to crossing the fence to run and train in the forest, which I'm pretty sure was illegal, but I couldn't manage to tell her a single thing about four. All I had said was it was surrounded by water. She had shared her memories with me, and when she had asked me about my district I had shut her out, not telling her a thing or letting her share my experiences or memories like she had done for me. I couldn't help but shut out the thought of my district though, each time I thought about it a picture of Kyne popped into my head, the look in his big blue eyes as I said goodbye and me making a promise with him that I knew couldn't keep, a promise that caused a pain in my chest every time the memory came rushing back into my thoughts. I couldn't just tell a seven year old kid that I would never see him again- I knew there was only a slight possibility of winning. I knew that if it was down to Charm and I in the end that I would rather die than watch anything happen to her, but if none of my teammates were amongst the living anymore, then I would win no matter what, and I would win for Kyne.

But if Charm was still alive I would keep her that way as long as I could, no matter what the circumstances may be, I will protect her. The more I thought about it the sooner I came to a conclusion, I had wondered what being in love would feel like, but I never thought I would experience it once I got her letter and entered into the Games. It had only taken a few days, a couple conversations and yesterday here on top of the roof and I had fallen under her spell, which I was perfectly fine with. I chuckled to myself, if only Kyne could see me now, in love with a victor's daughter, but I couldn't help it, there was just something about her...

As the thoughts rushed through my mind I started to wonder how Charm felt, both her and her brother were in the Games, and either none or only one of them would make it out alive. How could she stand it, knowing she would never see her brother again after a few weeks? Did they even get along at all- when she talked about her district yesterday she never mentioned anything about her brother Taino, or her father for that matter. I couldn't help but wonder if she just couldn't bare to talk about them, knowing she wouldn't see them anymore. Did she regret volunteering now, would she miss her brother at all, hell were they even close at all? I knew nothing.

"Dammit! I'm such an idiot!" I said so forcefully I practically screamed it to all of Panem, and hitting an air duct in my anger.

"No, you're not." I heard a small voice behind me say as I turned around to see a certain blonde standing behind me with tinted pink cheeks and, was that... trails of water on her face? The smile that had formed on my facial features quickly disappeared as I had come to a conclusion. _'She's been crying.'_ But the real question was why was she crying? As I walked over to where she was she kept lowering her head with each step I took towards her, not wanting me to see her tears, she was trying to be strong, not trying to show any weakness towards me, she didn't think that I would take advantage of her did she? As I was only a few feet away from her she turned and started running back towards the steps, without thinking my hand shot out grasping Charms wrist and pulling her towards me, wrapping my arms around her tiny form, and feeling her tightly hugging me in return. I know it sounds cheesy but having her here in my arms it just felt right, like we were two pieces of a puzzle made to fit together like this, making it feel like this was meant to be, everything felt so right and peaceful.

"Are you alright?" I felt a small nod against my chest but I didn't believe it. I leaned down to her ear a gently whispered."It's okay, go ahead and let it all out." After saying that I had expected to feel her start shaking and to feel water on my bare chest as she began to cry, but nothing I had expected became true. She was calm and I heard her let out a small sigh of what I think was relief; her breathing became steadier than before as her grip around my abdomen loosened. "You don't always have to be strong, other people can be strong for you from time to time, if you need a shoulder to cry on or someone to vent everything to, I'm always here for you." The last sentence slipped out before I could realize what I was saying, I was just hoping I didn't sound like an idiot in front of her.  
Apparently I didn't look like too much of an idiot.

"Thank you." I could hear her mutter as she nodded her head. I couldn't help but chuckle, not only at how cute and vulnerable she looked, but as her soft hair tickled my chest as her head bobbed up and down. This caused her to pull away from me a raising an eyebrow as if to ask what the heck I was laughing at, I saw her already pink tinted cheeks turn even darker as she looked down at the ground. "Would you mind putting a shirt on already?" Now THAT was the Charm I knew.

"What you don't like what you see?" I teased her as a smirk formed on my lips.

"Yeah but, - wait no I didn't, uh- um- I, ah-" She faltered with her words and blushed even more as she realized her confession of thoughts, and let out an aggravated grunt as she stopped trying to explain her accidental choice of words.

"Don't worry, if it makes you happy I'll go and put my shirt on, okay princess?" This caused me to receive a playful hit to my stomach as I laughed.

"Shut up, I just thought you might be cold up here with your chest uncovered." Making up a quick excuse she probably didn't think over very well.

"Aw, so you really do care about me, huh princess?"

"Ugh, didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?!"

"Whatever you say, _princess_." I couldn't help but tease her about it- the reaction on her face was priceless, a bit of cuteness mixed with the anger of the expression on her face. "Come on, let's go down stairs so we don't get caught." I took her wrist in my hand again leading her downstairs, with a stupid smile plastered across my face, one that she couldn't see.

-  
Training

I watched the other tributes as they went from station to station, observing their strengths and their weaknesses and which weapons each came from. Kali always pulled her out of being pulled back letting it fly around everywhere and obstructing her vision as it flew back and forth in front of her eyes making her technique sloppy and her timing to be delayed a bit. She was also pretty scrawny, but being from the upper districts that was expected. She wouldn't be any good at hand to hand combat but her accuracy and speed with a long spear was impressive, although I did notice the vulnerability as she always had her left side unprotected from attack. Donzi would be one guy tough to beat, his arms had a fairly good build of muscle on them, his aim wasn't his strong point I found that out when he tried to use a bow and arrow, always missing the target by at least a foot, and he could never hit the same place twice, his bulky form getting in his way each time. He was hot headed and every price of praise went straight to his head making him become cocky and too full of himself, my guess was he thought he was invincible. I'm a bit surprised he didn't float away with that empty skull filled with hot air.

Next was Summer, the girl from one who always had a seductive look in her eye as she was trying to get any and every guy to be on her team just to cross them in the end. Summer was only standing around letting everyone else train looking like she had something better and more important to do. The only time I saw her glance at any of the weapons she went over, picked up the crossbow and shot the practice dummy dead in the chest, afterwards yawning in boredom as she threw the crossbow onto the ground. Iush was the boy from eleven with Aura, his results were shocking being able to throw over hundred pound weights over his head, and then throw a javelin quite far and with amazing accuracy from the distance, I could tell now that the career pack would try to take him as an ally.

Speaking of allies, I turned to watch mine looking to find their own weaknesses so I knew what my team would need to deal with. Leo was large yet he didn't let that factor get in the way, by the looks of it he let nothing get in his way on the obstacle course not holding back one bit. I watched as he jumped from platform to platform, taking only seconds to recover until he reached the climbing wall, he struggled with putting his large feet into the provided holes but pulled himself up the wall using his upper body strength. After pulling his body all the way onto the ledge he moved on to another difficult task and jumping from rock to rock as they swayed back and forth over a pool of water, the trail leading underneath a thick stream of steady water falling into the pool. I looked around to see most people watching Leo just like I was. I turned my attention back to the course to see him crouching on one of the slippery wobbling stones awaiting a safe chance to jump, and when he did his foot slipped on the water making a splash as he landed in the pool below. I heard the Careers snicker at his fall and they one by one attempted the course themselves falling, and no one ever completing the entire thing.

After Summer had gone and a tribute I didn't know went up to the course I took my opportunity to try out a couple weapons myself while no one was paying attention, well no one but Charm. She must have seen me turn away from the crowd of tributes and walk over to the rack as I grasped a pair of elongated spiked nun chucks, I spun them around creating momentum until whacking the dummy in front of me in the head, a blow that could easily cause a concussion, head trauma, and even more likely death as the bone of a human skull broke apart. I continued this as a couple people took their turns trying to pass the impossible course before placing the nun chucks back where I had found them, turning to find a smiling Charm.

"Maybe you can pull your own weight after all." She joked, as we walked back to the crowd. "I'm impressed."

"Thanks," I snorted back at her. "Now if you pass that obstacle course I will be impressed." I joked back, causing me to receive a smirk in return.

"Fine." And with that she walked over to the starting line awaiting her brother to finish, I have to admit that even I was surprise when Taino was pushed over by the waterfall. Charm started and she seemed to move through the course with ease, dodging obstacles, and leaping platforms with ease, and climbing the wall barley breaking a sweat. But now she had reached the wet stones, jumping slowly from one to one, and surprisingly catching herself as she started to fall before barley reaching the slick stone puling herself back up. She dove through the water stream accidently jumping too far and falling into the water, but still making it a bit farther than her brother had.

While the last half of the tributes were taking their turn at the course, Charm I guess decided to take advantage of the distraction and check out some more of the weapons at a closer standpoint. It took me a few minutes to register that she wasn't standing at my side anymore. I looked over attempting to find her. Sure enough she was standing at the weapons rack, evaluating the choices. Although what I hadn't expected to see was Donzi walking up to where she was. I watched from my spot as they talked, or rather he talked to her and she tried to get him to go away. Charm stared to walk away and apparently Donzi didn't appreciate the concept of getting rejected. The next thing I saw made me want to rip his throat out right then and there. He pinned Charm against the wall, one wrist on each side of her head, and from the look on her face he was holding her wrists violently and forcefully. I felt anger brewing inside of me as I growled. At that moment something inside of me just snapped. I found myself practically running over to the wall he had her pinned against, Charm spun and somehow freed herself from his grip. Next was my turn, I pulled my hand back and when I released it there was a sickening crunch sound that normally would have made me cringe, but instead make a smile tug at the corners of my mouth. When he turned his head around I saw the scarlet liquid flowing from his nose in a small trail. He lunged at me trying to repay me for the little gift I just gave him no doubt, but the peacekeepers seemed to notice our little fight and decided to put an end to it, so that we would save it for the Arena. _He _was escorted out of the training center, probably to get his newly broken nose fixed somehow, and the others escorted Charm and I over to the head of training to be chastised for our actions.

After being chewed out we went back to the crowd of tributes that seemed to either ignore or not have noticed what had just happened as they watched one unsuccessful tribute after another fall off the wet stones of the obstacle course. Up next was the last person I expected to see attempt the course, Aura. Everyone's eyes were on her as she jumped, leapt, climbed, pretty much blowing everyone away as she seemed to breeze though everything, including the wet rock pillars that had tripped everyone up before. She had made it to the last part, a rope climb, and when finished she rang a bell that hung at the top of the rope. Every onlooker stared in awe as she walked away from the obstacles, leaving everyone to wonder how she had done it so effortlessly. She looked around before retreating back to her previous station identifying poisonous and safe plants, and different creatures we might encounter while in the Arena, while Leo followed her back.

_'This year's Games will be quite interesting.'_ I thought to myself, an all knowing smirk evident on my face.

**So thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this story so far, if you have please give me some feedback! Also I am curious to see who you guys want to win, your favorite tribute, and if you want to you can submit your own tribute so I can use them for other tributes. PLEASE AND THANK YOU!**


	9. Chapter 8

**Alright guys, I'm kind of disappointed in myself now, no one has bothered to review for the past several chapters and I have a grand total of one review. While I do appreciate the review I feel as if I've failed trying to write my first fanfiction. Although, through writing this story so far I've realized how much I love writing and coming up with my stories so I will continue to write this story until the end, like I've said all reviews are greatly appreciated, but I won't ask for any reviews before posting (because obviously that's not working) and chapters might be longer to update. If there are any readers that are sticking with this story I thank you so much for reading. I have seen the amount of views this has gotten, and it honestly seems a bit ridiculous that about 200 people have read this or at least part of this story and only one person has told me what they think about it. Anyway, I'm still a bit upset but I'm going to shut up and let you read, for once there will not be another Authors Note at the end of the chapter, so enjoy.** **Also, as of this chapter this story is ¼ of the way done!**

A Different Time. Chapter Eight.

Leo POV.

Today was do or die.

Okay so maybe not yet but it was important, today was when we were to show our skills off to the judges. Sponsors could be the difference between life and death once we were in the Arena and they would look back to these scores, the ones we would receive later tonight. So in a way it was do or die, just not as much as it would be in the Arena when all but one of us dies in there. These thoughts joined so many others as I lay on my bed not wanting to pull my aching body off of the amazingly soft mattress that was underneath me. I wanted to go back to sleep, I wanted the sun to set again so it's rays weren't shining directly in my face, and I wanted to be back in district eight, waking up my younger siblings, helping my mom with work. I wanted to have my life back but the Hunger Games had taken all of that away from me and now I realized they did need to be stopped, I didn't want my family to watch me die and I didn't want to scar my siblings with memories of my death, whether quick and painless or slow and painful they didn't need to see any of it. Everyone in Panem would see my death, everyone except me. I wondered what it was like to die, some said you see your life flash before your eyes, some say it's like falling asleep, but none of them are dead to know sure if what they say is true. I knew I wouldn't be a victor because from the two training days I had never excelled in anything I tried, not weapons, not weights, and not the obstacle course. The only thing I had excelled at and enjoyed was identifying different plants and organisms, but for all I know the ones I have memorized could be completely different from what is in the Arena.

I had watched my teammates in the training center, Grey was fast and strong and he could handle his weapon of choice better than most of the careers. Then there was Charm, a girl with the wit to come up with this plan, who also was very agile, cunning and dangerous with a blade in her hand, or rather on her arm. And last was the one I had given the most attention to, Aura. She had gone through the obstacle course with ease blowing everyone away, she was a whiz when it came to snares and traps, she could run around on her toes not making a single sound as she weaves through people, she could climb, and also had a decent throwing arm and aim to top it all off. Then there was me, the bulky kid who had never held a weapon before because he would make a fool out of himself if he tried to pick one up. I have no idea as to how someone is supposed to hold a weapon, let alone use it, I never touched anything that would help to keep me alive in the Arena, I just watched as others tried their hand at the different skills. I had stayed strictly in the painting station (which I was absolutely horrid at), the snares and traps, (another thing I could never get right), and then the identification and observation areas, the latter of the two stations I was at I was actually decent at but the Game Makers could change the Arena and everything in it with a push of a button so that skill could be entirely of useless anyway.

I groaned to myself as I lifted my body off of the soft silky sheets and reluctantly got dressed, choosing a plain blue v-neck shirt and black pants. I didn't want to get up, I didn't want to be a laughing stock later today when evaluation scores were revealed, and most defiantly I didn't want to look like a failure in front of all of Panem and my family. I released another groan of irritation as I opened the door to my room and even brighter rays of sun shine through the glass straight into my eyes.

_'A great start to a great day.'_ I told myself, the words laced and dripping with sarcasm, this day might be the one worst yet. I turned my head away from the glass windows to avoid the sun and I noticed the door to Grey's room was cracked open. Curiosity took its hold on me as I found myself walking toward the door, lightly pushing on it as it squeaked open light made its way inside revealing the room to be empty. I took a few steps in to clarify no living being was in there when a squeal from farther down the hall grasped my attention, someone had shut a door of their own and was now coming. I hurriedly moved out of the room back to the hall apparently not paying attention to where I was going and running into a wall. As I regained my senses I recognized the so called 'wall' was none other than Grey who had just shut the stair door to the rooftop and had previously had a large grin on his face, reminding me of yesterday when he came out of the same door without his shirt and straight to the table for breakfast with the same smug look plastered on his face.

"So, what's so interesting up there that makes you keep going to the roof?" My eyebrow raised out of suspicion as the question flared out of my mouth.

"Nothing really," he shrugged. "It's just quieter and peaceful up there, gives me time to think." The tone in his voice indicated he was partially telling the truth but also holding something else back as well, but he quickly changed the subject as we walked over to the couches in the living room. "So what are you going to do for the evaluations tonight?"

I groaned again as I plopped down on the leather sofa. "I don't want to think about that right now." Grey reacted by raising his brow at me in confusion. "I don't know, I wasn't any good at any of the stations the past two days, I'll probably get the lowest score this year since I'm rubbish at everything."

"It didn't look that way yesterday when I saw you at the identification station, you seemed to nail that and you got farther than quite a few tributes in the obstacle course. You also never picked up any of the weapons to know if you are good at any or not, considering you analyze situations and think critically if you did pick up a weapon, choose a bow and arrow."

"Thanks for the suggestion." I mumbled my sentence causing it to come out more sarcastic than it was meant to be. "Hopefully they have the identification area set up tonight otherwise I'm screwed, and everyone will know I'm worthless."

"Like I told you, if that's the case then try your hand at the bow and see from there. And by the way, I doubt Aura thinks you're useless." My eyes widened just as his smirk did.

_ 'Aw shit! Was it so obvious that he could tell that I liked her?'_ After saying that we fell in an odd silence, not entirely because of our conversation but because your mentors and escorts made their way out into the living area where we were.

~Later~

I was shaking, I knew I was going to make a fool out of myself in front of the Game Makers and make it look like I was a worthless piece of shit that wouldn't last a full day in the Games, and I would agree with that. I was anxious as I awaited my turn in the training center, I wanted this to be done and over with already so the embarrassment would pass and be over with already. I still had a while before it was my turn as the girl from six had just left for the center. I wondered what Grey had done and how well he did- he probably did perfectly fine, while I would screw everything up. I had thought about it and decided that I would obviously show the Makers how well I was at identifying organisms and everything else that was at that station, after all that was all that I could do.

I felt a comforting hand rest on my shoulder and I turned around to see a pair of chocolate brown eyes staring into my blue ones calming me slightly. "Are you okay?" She asked, her voice sounding as smooth as honey and I smiled up at her in return.

"Yeah," I sighed. "Just not particularly looking forward to humiliating myself and losing all the sponsors that were even considering supporting me."

"Don't think like that, you'll be fine trust me, I was with you the whole time we were training and you'll do great, so forget about all the nerves." For the first time I was her smile and it made her look absolutely radiant.

"What about you, are you nervous at all?" She shrugged.

"Maybe a little but I don't really care what score I get. I'm more concerned about what will happen while we are _in_ the Arena not really what happens before it, you know?" I nodded at her question even though I knew it was rhetorical, I felt the need to respond anyway. We talked for a little while longer until we heard my name announced over the speaker. "Good luck!" She yelled after me as I was almost at the door. I turned around and wished her luck as well as the doors opened and closed after I took a step inside.

The room looked even more bare and metallic than the past two days, it probably looked barren because several stations were taken away, and much to my dismay one of the no longer existent areas was the identification center. I felt the stares of the onlookers as they watched my every move- well when I was moving, I was frozen in place out of panic, there was nothing else I could do that I would receive a decent score at. I bit down on my lip nervously when Grey's advice from this morning popped into my head, and I followed it. Going over to a shelf with a steel bow and a quiver of about a dozen arrows, I weighed the bow in my hands like I had seen people do before, and then plucked an arrow from the quiver. I took a deep breath as I pulled the arrow back, calculating the distance and the force needed to hit a target, and releasing the arrow the same time as I released my breath. I watched the arrow glide through the air, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

The results were nothing like I had expected, the arrow pierced through the right side of the dummy's chest. I could swear that my jaw hung open out of surprise as I kept looking at the target, still not believing that I had made that shot, that I had been the one able to do that, I guess Grey was right after all. I smirked as I loaded another arrow and another each one hitting the target, which on a real person would either be lethal immediately or would cause the victim to bleed out. Even as I shot the fifth arrow I was still amazed at what I had done, I mean I never had held a bow before today, yes I listened as people had explained how to use one the other day, and yes I had watched a few people practice with it, but doing it yourself and being able to make a kill shot with ease was remarkable for me.

As I walked out of the evaluation room I could feel a large smirk spread across my face. Maybe this wouldn't be as difficult as I originally thought it to be.


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey guys so I want to say thank you to Brittney for reviewing the story, I really appreciate it and thank you for giving me your support! Next I wanted to the shooting today in Connecticut was horrible, I'm praying for the families affected by the shooting and hope that something like this doesn't happen again! Please send your prayers their way as well. So I decided to post this chapter a bit early because I kinda got bored, anyway I hope you like it, and please review! Also I used Caeser Flickerman in this because I didn't really know how to replace him, I guess in this story he lives for quite some time, like Snow… so anyway…**

**ENJOY! :D**

A Different Time. Chapter Nine.

Aura POV.

Leo had been in there for a while, or it was a long time before they announced they were ready for the next tribute to come in, I was wondering how he did. He was good at certain stations and wasn't particularly bad at any he just underestimated his abilities. I also found myself wondering what he had done that had taken so long, I found myself pacing up and down the hallway while I pondered everything, Eventually I gave up a spotted an open seat by Charm with I took, letting out a frustrated grunt while sitting down.

"You paced long enough I was starting to wonder if you were gonna cause a rut I the floor or not." I couldn't help but let out a small laugh at Charms joke, it was weird she had reminded me of the twins back home, having a sweet caring side to her like Sola and at the same time having a fire in her and a little spunk just like Fawn. I didn't let my smile falter as I thought about home, instead of causing me emotional pain like it did for so many others; I couldn't help but remember all the good times I had there. Sure I was sad that I wouldn't be able to make more fond memories in my district but there were the ones I had now that kept me going, giving me the drive I needed to play my part in a new revolution, that is if this whole thing works out like it's supposed to.

"So, what are you going to do for the Game makers?" I thought for a moment, realizing this was the first time I actually took a chance to think about it.

"I don't know, I haven't really thought much about it." This caused Charm to laugh slightly.

"Well, maybe you could sneak up behind the makers and give them a surprise." She joked, it wasn't too bad of an idea and yes I did realize she was only joking around, but it would grab their attention and possibly give me points for being able to sneak around right under their noses.

"Yeah, I doubt they would have an obstacle course set up after so many people failed at it the other day they probably expect no one to even attempt it. I'll most likely end up throwing a few knifes at targets though." It sounded like a decent plan to me, I had good aim, why not use it and show it off a bit? "What about you?" I asked in turn, causing a small silence before we started to quietly laugh.

"What do you think?" She teased. "And by the way, good luck." She stated right before my name was called, in retrospect I should have noticed there was only three of us left.

"Good luck to you too, although I doubt you'll need it." I commented as I walked to the doors slightly smiling. 'It's time.' I thought. First thing I noticed when I entered the room was that all the people who were supposed to be judging my abilities were distracted by talking with each other and drinking wine, not even noticing I had entered into the same room as them. I had to admit this irritated me- a lot! I stood there tapping my foot awaiting them to acknowledge me in some way, which didn't happen. Getting more irritated by the second I took Charm's mock idea and put it into action. On my toes I snuck my way up to the platform the game makers lounge rested on, climbing up and as I reached the top no one had noticed me yet so I took a glass of wine from a table and leaned against the wall, making it look as though I had been there for a while.

After a little while longer I cleared my throat, causing a few people to jump out of their seat, some almost jumped out of their own skin. "So are you going to just sit here and chat or shall we get on with my evaluation?" I snipped at them the shock fairly evident on everyone's faces causing a smirk to appear on mine as I set the wine glass down after taking a quick swig and jumping off the platform landing on my feet on the ground below. I could feel their eyes on me as I walked towards the weapons, picking up a few knifes and then throwing them, three at a time, my smirk widening as they hit the target in a perfectly straight line. After doing so I turned to address my audience again, "Now if I were you I would be impressed, don't you agree?" After all said and done I sauntered out of the center and back up to the penthouse, a small part of me concerned that I had pissed them off, and if I did how that would affect my score later tonight.  
'Oh well, can't change anything now.'

Penthouse

After returning from the training center took a shower, the warm water gently massaging my cocoa skin, cleansing it and making it feel amazingly smooth. I wanted to stay there with no cares in the world, I wanted to forget about all of my problems, and I wanted to forget about the games, but none of that was possible, this was my life now for however long it would last now, which I knew wasn't long. Picking out my clothes, a warm white cotton long sleeved blouse and black dress pants, I sat around in the lounge awaiting Charm's arrival and the scores from tonight, I felt bad for her because with how much the game makers were paying attention to me at first must have been nothing compared to how bored they were with the last tribute of the process. I switched my position on the couch several times, going from sitting straight up to sitting on my legs, to lying down, then sitting upside down until the blood was pounding in my head, and now sitting legs crossed watching Hunger Games coverage. The anchors for the games coverage were two men one was Ceaser Flickerman, the new interviewer for the games who was very blue, and the new head Game maker, Nallen Krysh. The later if the two was different than head game makers in the past he didn't have the Capitol look the others did, he looked like he was picked straight out of one I the districts and given a chance for fame, he had a more rugged hairstyle than usual, messy, unlike the perfectly groomed ones, and his hair was a dark blond color with traces of brown laced within the locks. His eyes were a golden color, probably changed from their original shade, something about his facial structure and features looked familiar but I couldn't place where I had seen them before.

After a while of watching the two talk back and forth I heard the elevator ding announcing the arrival of a very pissed off looking Charm. It was strange to see her fuming and mad considering she's always been so nice and sweet around me before.  
"How'd it go?" I dared to ask, only to have her not heard me as she was storming away towards her room. I ran as many different scenarios trough my head wondering what the Game Makers might have done now.

After an hour Charms escort had to drag her out of her room so we could watch the scores of us and the others, but most of all the competition. Districts one and two rolled by with a few nines and tens, three had decent scores with an eight and six. Next was four I didn't expect a low score from Grey but I was shocked that the Game Makers had decided to grant him with a number twelve, beating out all of the career's scores with flying colors. I looked over at Charm who didn't seem shocked at all, and had a small smile graced on her lips. The girl managed a seven. The other districts rolled by until number eight, I have to admit I was a bit surprised when a number eleven popped up underneath his picture, Charm and I looked at each other in shock at how out team mates high marking (-downstairs Grey was smirking knowing he was right about the bow and arrow-) in fact I had almost spewed out the water I was drinking. It's not that I thought Leo was a weakling and had no skill or anything, I was surprised... because... I thought he had... okay I thought he had pretty much no skill but so what if I thought that? He had said himself that he hadn't been good at anything and then he blows past the career scores? It just didn't make since, did it? From the way Charm and I were looking at each other, surprised evident on both our faces I'm guess the same thoughts were going through her head as they ran through mine. Then I let it slip out.

"How the hell did he get an eleven?!" Charm recollected herself from the shock.

"We probably shouldn't be so surprised- anything is possible in the Games." There she was having a level head about this whole thing, and slightly hinting at what was going to come with the small smile appearing on her face. We listened as our mentors took over the conversation from there until my district came up, with my asshole of a mentor talking the time seemed to pass by at the speed of a sleepwalking turtle. No one was surprised when Iush received an eleven as well, as they announced my name I began to grown curious. I felt two emotions bubble up in the pit of my stomach, shock and anger- they gave me a damn five. You have got to be shitting me right now, I know I defiantly did better than that, okay so maybe scaring the game makers and stealing some of their wine wasn't such a good idea.

"Don't worry about it Aura, at least you have the element of surprise, no one will expect what you are capable of." Charm must have noticed my anger, as I let it bubble down. I heard her release a sigh as they began to announce her brother's name. "Let me guess little Mr. Perfect is going to get a perfect score of twelve out of twelve." I heard annoyance drip from her tone, and it was true Taino hadn't held back at all in training and he was a berserk killing machine that would probably win, and couldn't hold the shock back when he received a lower score, a ten. I knew for a fact he did NOT hold back at all I front of the judges besides they loved watching him in training. I turned to a smile in Charm as it was her turn now.

"I guess they saved the best for last." I teased her, and as I was giggling I saw her eyes widen, the green orbs almost popping out of her head, I turned and saw a twelve underneath her picture, and smirked. We have an eleven a secret weapon and two twelve's, this year's Games would impact the Capitol whether they knew it or not.


	11. Chapter 10

**Hey Peoples!**

**So first off, Merry Christmas, here is my little present to you, Chapter 10! Haha, anyway this chapter starts off a little different than the others and I guess you could say it's just a bit odd compared to the others, or at least the first part.**

**Also, one thing I would like to ask of you guys, if you review answer this question:**

**What was the best present you got this year? OR What is your favorite part of the holidays?**

**Personally the best present I got this year was a hoodie that is water resistant! I literally have been holding it under a sink faucet all day! (okay so maybe not literally :P) And my favorite part of the holidays is being able to relax and enjoy some time with my family and puppies, my parents work a lot of the year and are busy most of the time so it's nice to be able to spend some time with them! Okay so there was your little information about me, so if you do decide to review, answer one or both of the questions please! And I want to say thank you for those people who have been reading this story, 330 views, and 4 reviews. Honestly I think you guys can do a bit better than only 4 reviews. I have been thinking, and I have come up with an idea for a sequel to A Different Time, but I will only write it if you guys give me a certain amount of reviews, and I will decide on that number sometime soon, it depends on how the reviews continue!**

**Anyway that was a long authors note to start off, so I thinks it's time for me to shut up and for you to read!**

**ENJOY AS ALWAYS!**

A Different Time. Chapter Ten.

Charms POV

I was freezing and yet I was sweating at the same time. I saw her standing right there in front of me. I felt my arm reach out to touch her, to make sure it was real, only to have my arm pass through her, like she was a projection. "Charm, I'm so proud of you, just look at how much you've grown." She said smiling down at me with a soft smile, something I sure as heck wasn't used to.

_'She's not real.'_ I told myself, my mother was dead because of me, and was now taunting me in any way she could, especially in my dreams. She started to take small steps towards me as I backed away.

"You have no idea how proud of you I am, but you do realize you're committing suicide, right sweetheart. There's no possible way you can win or make it out of this alive." Her tone becoming sterner as she went on.

_'She's not real'_ I kept repeating the sentence in my mind but her words sounded so comforting, so safe, I fought it as best as I could but my limbs froze no longer being under my control. I stood there paralyzed as she kept taking small steps towards me.  
"You have courage, but you don't have the brain to plan this out. Think about it sweetie, you couldn't even finish the plan." I kept repeating the phrase in my mind I attempt to avoid her words sinking into my thoughts. "You never think things through, you falter because you overestimate your abilities, but in reality you're not anything you think you are. You're not as smart as you've fooled yourself to be, you're completely oblivious to certain things, and you don't have anything to offer, no wonder you father liked your brother more."

_ 'No, no, I can't listen- I can't let her get to me. She's not real!'_ I felt a slight pressure on my forehead as I winced in pain, her words stung but the pressure didn't, it felt comforting. Yet her voice came back again, her tone becoming harsh and cold.  
"You're absolutely useless, you can't do anything, it's a wonder your father ever put up with you for so long." She had reached the spot where I stood and began to shake me, somehow able to grip into my arms. "You're a good for nothing selfish little bitch, you took away those three children from their parents just like you took me away from my own life! You completely destroyed people's life's and caused those three an early death! You cause nothing but pain and misery no matter what you do, and you have already failed in your plan, even if you are too blind to see it, god dammit!"

_'No, no! No! It's not true, I didn't do anything!'_ The words wouldn't come out of my mouth, but the grown woman in front of me delivered a strong slap to my face.  
I jolted up to find myself in my room in the Capitol, with a cold sweat all over me, I was absolutely freezing. I felt my short and shallow breaths become deeper and longer as I calmed myself down, I was only dreaming. I nearly jumped out of my own skin as a warm hand touched my shoulder. I saw Grey kneeling at the edge of my bed, concern laced in his eyes.

"Are you alright there, Princess?" Adding humor to his comforting tone which caused my body to become less tense and for me to calm down a little and laugh a bit. I was still shaking from the cold, but I couldn't figure out why I was so freezing. I gave the boy next to me a small nod. Why does he always appear whenever I need to recollect myself and be alone, not that I was complaining but still, why him? As his hand touched the bare skin of my arm again he didn't look very convinced. "You're freezing cold." I watched him as he eyed my covers, he stood up, I assumed to leave, but he walked around to the other side of my bed, took off his shirt, and climbed underneath the sheets.

"What are you doing?" I asked hoping he couldn't see my bright red tomato colored face.

"Turn around." He ordered, I gave him an untrusting look, but realized if he wanted to try anything he wouldn't have been so concerned, and could've done something when I was asleep. I reluctantly laid back down and turned on my side not facing him. I felt him move under the covers towards me, I turned towards him, still shivering.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything unless you want me to, Princess."  
If he couldn't see my blushing face he could now, as him smirked. Embarrassed, I turned over without hesitation to hide my face. I felt his arms snake around my waist and he pulled me closer. I could feel the muscles in his arms, and when his body came in contact with mine I felt the heat coming off of him, he was making me warm using his own body heat, I was still shivering but it wasn't nearly as bad now as it was earlier. I let myself melt into him as he hugged me from behind.

"Why?" I quickly shut my mouth after I let the question slip out. Both shock and happiness flowed through me as he responded, thankfully not taking my comment rudely or as an insult.

"Well, I went up to the roof and when you weren't there something didn't feel right, so I came down here to check up on you. Also you're really cold and probably close to getting hypothermia so I thought you might want a little warmth, so you don't get sick before going into the Arena." His voice was smooth and silky, he wasn't trying to tease me or joke around, and he was actually worried about me and wanted me to be safe. I smiled. "And also, a sick teammate would be like carrying around dead weight." And he just ruined it, typical Grey.

"Thank you."

"No problem. So I was thinking and I realized I know almost nothing about you, would you care to enlighten me, Princess?"

"Sure, but let's make a game out of this."

"How so?"

"We both don't know a lot about each other so why don't we take turns asking questions?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Yay." I added a small cheer causing Grey to chuckle. "Okay so, me first! What your favorite color?"

"Blue, you have to learn to love it while living surrounded by liquid blue, although I'm starting to appreciate a few shades of green."

"Like?"

"Like the light green color your eyes are. And since you asked two questions it's my turn now. Who was your first crush? And what was he like?" To say I was taken aback would be an understatement. I released a sigh when I recollected myself, I never really thought about guys back in twelve and now it probably doesn't matter if I did or not, but there was one guy...

"Well, I don't remember his name," Lie. "But he's tall, strong, and pretty funny. He's also the only guy I've ever liked in that kind of way." I let my voice trail off as I finished my awkward response.

"So I take it you've never been kissed then?"

"I'll let you figure that out for yourself smart one. Okay my turn again, best thing about your district?"

"My family and the view." His response was short and sweet, and I didn't bother to have him elaborate. We continued to play our little question game as we laid there together, him arms comfortably wrapped around me, and me secretly wishing we could stay like this forever. But all good things must end, as sun rays began seeping through the windows we began to end our little game.

"Last question Princess, are you warm now?"

"Yes." I didn't even try to hide the disappointment in my voice. God what was this guy doing to me, sure he was cute but there's no way this could end well even if there was a slim chance he liked me back. His arms slipped out from under me and as he left I let my eyes close. The same slight pressure I had felt in my sleep returned but now I realized what it was, Grey had placed his lips on my forehead delivering a small kiss. It was a rather sweet gesture but I took it as something that a decent older sibling would do.

~~~~Later~~~~

My prep team surrounded me as they were getting me ready, I made them stop for a minute before doing my hair, so I could talk to my stylist, Kculan alone.

"Why haven't any tributes ever dyed their hair like everyone does in the Capitol?" Kculan raised his eyebrow at me, figuring out my real question.

"No, Snow wants clean and pure tributes for the Arena."

"But what if we start something new, not fully dying it, only coloring a few streaks throughout and highlighting it?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Well, it would represent my district so, coal produces fire right? So then what color is fire when it's extremely hot?" He shook his head, I figured he wouldn't know the answer, but I did.

~Interviews~

I felt my palms begin to sweat.

I was already late for the interviews because Kculan had taken so long to finish getting me ready, I got backstage as Grey was strolling across the stage. He looked amazing, and kinda hot. His dark blue colored suit was hugging his muscles perfectly, showing them off and his dark brown hair was different, it was lighter now more of a milky chocolate color and the front was spiked up with the rest of it messy. I saw the smirk on his face as he sat down in the seat by Caeser.

"Nice outfit choice." Grey commented, being the first to realize that he and Caeser were dressed in the same suit, causing an uproar of laughter from the crowd and Caeser.

"Well Grey, I guess great minds think alike, although I will admit, I think I wear this better." Then turning their playful banter towards the audience. "What do you think?" The crowd went into an uproar again, shouting that Grey was the better looking out of the pair, which I had to agree with. "I guess you win this round Grey."

Grey gave him a shrug in return. "Eh, what can you do?"

"Anyway, let's get started shall we, for starters would you care to elaborate on how you got the first perfect score in evaluations in the history of the Hunger Games?" The blue haired man inquired.

"I just went in there and gave it a shot. I didn't really do much so I'm just as surprised about my score as you are."

"Don't be so modest Grey, I mean look at the muscles you have on you, they've got to have something to do with that score, and you volunteered, some people might think you've had a plan in the works this whole time."

"Not really Caeser."

"So then why did you volunteer?"

"I'm not that sure myself, it just felt like it was what I needed to do at the time."

"But what about the people you left behind in your district?" I saw Grey tense as was usual when someone asked him about his district.

"My family and friends." He wouldn't look up at Caeser or at the audience, he was stuck looking at the floor.

"Well there must have been a girl right?" Another wave of cheers came from the audience, and he was waiting for the cheers to die down before answering.

"Well, there was one girl but it's somewhat complicated. I didn't leave her behind- it's more like she's going to leave me in the dust." The confusion on everyone's faces was evident.

"So from what I'm gathering," He began. "She's here in the Capitol?"

"For the moment, yes."

"Ah, you've fallen for another tribute haven't you?" He shrugged whilst putting a sly smile upon his face. I felt my stomach flip, I knew who he was talking about, I saw the way he looked at her, the way that he watched her during training. Before Caeser could ask him who the girl was the time ran out, the two men onstage shook hands, and Grey was ushered to his seat in the audience. I felt my tear ducts begin working and had to hold back the water from escaping my eyes. I didn't even know why, but Grey does things to me, he makes me feel important, he accepts me the way I am, not because I'm a stupid victor's daughter, he makes me feel happy. For the first time in years I've felt happy, and loved and appreciated for being me, its funny how one moment can change all of that forever.

**And tada! So remember to review and please continue to read! I will be updating again during the holidays so look out for the next chapter. And just to see if I made this obvious, who do you think Grey has fallen for?**

**And for a more difficult question, who do you think Charm 'knows' Grey has fallen for?**

**And the last one is how do you think this will effect Charm and Grey from now on? **

**Okay, so remember to answer the questions aboveplease! Oh and really quick before I forget, I am in need for a couple more tributes for the Games so you are more than welcome to submit your own! Even if I don't use them in this story I have a couple more ideas in my noggin that I can use them for!**

**ANYWAY, HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND STAY SAFE!**


	12. Chapter 11

**Hey guys, so I know I just updated, what a few days ago? But oh well, I didn't think you would mind if I updated a bit early, right?**

**Okay so first off, I would like to say thank you VERY much to BookWise for reviewing every chapter of this story so far. Thank you so much, for reviewing with constructive criticism, it helps me a TON! And I'm very happy you like my story, and thank you as well for all of the nice comments, they all made me smile ****, see? **

**And I Would also like to thank Rueflower for your review, it's a good suggestion for the end, but I think I might go another path, it's a bit too similar to the end of the actual book, but it is a greatly appreciated idea!**

**Also, with some of the questions at the end of the last chapter, Grey has fallen for Charm (if I didn't make it obvious), but Charm doesn't realize that and thinks he's fallen for Aura, especially since she doesn't know what she feels for him yet… Oops, maybe a bit of a give away there? Oh well, I didn't want people to think something with this story that's not true… Okay that's it I think, dang this was another long authors note… well ENJOY READING AND REMEMBER TO REVIEW.**

Grey POV.

I put a large grin on my face as I shook hands with Caeser before leaving the stage, my last second to impress the sponsors before going into the Arena tomorrow. I sat in the audience as directed and waited for the interviews to end. I learned little bits and pieces about my competition but not as much as I wished. The most interesting part by far was when Leo basically confessed his feelings about Aura saying that he loved her for the whole country to hear. The crush was obvious on his part, but I still wasn't too surprised when Aura said she returned the feelings during her own interview. I also couldn't help but make a few comments about the two as he came down and took the seat next to me. I was anxious to watch Charms interview with Caeser, but Taino had to go first.

Seeing him made me surprised that the two of them were even related, they were so different personality wise, as well as their appearances. Heck Charm didn't really even look like her dad; she must have taken after her mom quite a lot.

"So Taino, let me ask you this, were you surprised or angered at all when your name was picked for the Games?"

"Neither, I was excited. There's nothing interesting in the districts so this should make my life more entertaining and there's nothing better to do with my time. Each year I was hoping my name would be picked so I could experience the Games and being a Victor first hand." His voice droned on as he said he would win the Games and have his life set. His cocky attitude was really starting to bug me.

"So I take it your pretty confident in your abilities, but what about your sister, I think we all were surprised when she scored better than you?"

"I was just warming up, besides there's no way in hell that little wimp will beat me in the Games. I'm the future victor, not that pathetic little bitch." I had to restrain myself from jumping out of my seat and punch the bastard's lights out. Leo was sitting next to me and must have noticed my discomfort.

"Take a chill pill Grey." Leo whispered over to me.

Caeser must have picked up on a few things Taino said. "So, you and your sister aren't very close I take it?"

"No, she was never interesting enough to take notice to, so I didn't. We never got to know each other, and I'm glad I didn't waste my time since she will be with _mother_, dead, in only a matter of days." He sneered as he said the word mother.

I shifted in my seat; I hadn't known before that their mother was dead. I knew she had never been in the public eye like their father had, but I figured she was just at home with their kids or something like that. Maybe on those mornings on the rooftop she hadn't been telling me everything after all. But the way that Taino was talking about her and her mother showed that they meant little or nothing to him, which I could tell didn't settle well with some of the people in the audience, just as it hadn't settled with me either.

A ringing shook me out of my thoughts. His interview was done and now it was time for the last one, Charm's.

I felt my jaw fall to the floor as Charm walked out dressed in a black lace sleeveless dress with a light blue color underneath that went to her knees and showed off every part of her body, much to my enjoyment. Her hair though, was what stood out her hair slightly curlier and teal colored streaks throughout her blonde locks, the different colors complementing her eyes. You could hear the audience gasp as they noticed her hair, no one in the history of the games has done that, or thought of doing it. Only people in the Capitol have ever done anything as bold as that, she's already breaking the rules for our (or rather her) plan. Even Caeser had to regain his composure. After a deafening roar of applause died down the questioning began.

"Well, you sure know how to make an entrance don't you?" She just nodded and giggled a bit going for likability to the sponsors. "I guess this girl will keep us on our toes!" He yelled into the audience and he was right, Charm was a girl who was defiantly full of surprises.

"I do what I can!" Her face was beaming with delight from Caeser's comment, obviously taking it as a compliment. Damn, she was already good at this.

"So how is it being a Victor's daughter?" I could tell that he learned his lesson not to ask her very specific questions about her family, like he had for Taino; things would only become a train wreck from there if he did. Even asking that probably made him nervous that something would erupt between the siblings, but it looks like he got lucky this time.

"It's difficult especially sense I barely see him, and whenever there's a rare time he's home his mind is completely and totally set on Taino, not even bothering with me."

"So how does it feel to be a victor's daughter and to be in the Games?"

"To be honest Caeser, its luxurious and everything, but I'm tired of people always doing things for me, I don't want to be dependent on others all of my life. I want to show that I'm capable of more than sitting around looking pretty."

"And I think we can all say that you do a pretty good job of that. What do you say? Her name fits her pretty well, charming name for a charming girl!"**(Hehe, see what I did there, okay yeah that was kinda bad… don't hate me.)** I saw her lips move as to say thank you but the words were drowned out as the crowd roared in response to Caeser's question. "So next question, why did you volunteer for someone you don't know?"

She took a deep intake of breath before giving her answer to all of Panem. "I volunteered for Jasmine because she deserved a second chance, she saves life's everyday as an apothecary and she cares for others. I didn't- I don't believe that it's right for someone that works so hard and devotes her life to helping and healing others deserves to be killed brutally in the Arena, or to be forced to kill others with the same hands that had cured so many. It seems unfair and counterintuitive in my opinion."

The dumbstruck looks on everyone's faces were priceless, people seemed shocked, unsuspecting of the reply that just escaped a Victors daughters lips.

"Okay then," He finally picked his jaw off of the floor and recollected himself. "It looks like we have time for one more question. What do you think makes you different from all of the other Tributes in this year's Games, Charm?" An all knowing smirk spread on to her face, and she found my eyes deciding to face me while answering.

"The thing that separates me from everyone else in the Hunger Games is that I refuse to kill anyone."  
Now those faces were priceless.

~Rooftop~

I came out to the rooftop one last time to relax, tomorrow morning we would be rushed out the door to get ready and sent to the Games Arena. Also getting up early wasn't an option, I had to get enough sleep so I wouldn't get too tired or drowsy these next few days. Instead of watching the sun rise, I got to see the Capitol at its full glory at night. Lights illuminating the night sky, people bustling around trying to get home and re-watch tonight's interviews, taking account of who they wanted to be Victor, and preparing to watch the massacre begin tomorrow. I couldn't believe the way these people watch the Games. They think it's a form of entertainment made just for them and that nothing's wrong with it. In the Districts we watch these next few weeks solemnly mourning those who died, and praying for the people from our District to survive. After so many familiar faces will never be seen again, you have to hope you don't lose anymore. It becomes so hard after watching constant death to focus on your tasks at work or school, like a giant black storm cloud hovers over you constantly, taking weeks to go away, even after the Games are finished and the Victor tours around Panem.

I was jealous of Charm, jealous of how she was so positive her plan would work, and everything would be alright. I remember my mother used to tell me stories when I was younger, about a time before Panem, where a princess would be in peril and a handsome hero would come to the rescue and save her. They were stories that were popular in District four, but my mother's stories were different, they didn't always have a happy ending, sometimes the hero and princess would die, or something else would happen to them. My mother was trying to teach me that not everything has a happy ending, not everything is perfect like we imagine it to be, and sometimes we can't change things from their destiny. That sometimes it's not worth the heartbreak to try. My mother tried to teach me what she learned when the uprising had failed, and what she believed with all her heart, happy endings only happen in stories. I didn't know if I believed that, it was hard to think something that you have been taught for your whole life isn't true.

"What are you doing out here?" I heard an all too familiar voice behind me, but it was one I don't think I could ever get tired of hearing.

"I could ask you that same question, but since you asked first I'll reply first. I've been thinking about this, about this plan how do you know it'll work how do you know it's not a mistake risking our lives for something that might not even happen?" I asked, sincerity in my voice trying not to sound harsh, and in a way it was me trying to show her that I could open up to her like she had a few days ago at the same time. She sat down next to me taking my hand in hers, and in doing so made her blush slightly.

"'A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.' I can't guarantee this will work now, but I know it will happen sooner or later, and I believe that risking ones live to save others is it own reward."  
I looked at her and she looked back with her sparkling green eyes after she had finished her small speech. I noticed a small strand of hair had fallen in front of her face from behind her ear. I reached my hand forward and gently pushed the lock of blue-golden hair back behind her ear. We were close to each other with only a small gap between us- I could smell vanilla and coconut-her smell. Something seemed to take control of my body and I started to close the foot length gap between us. The crowd outside intervened when my lips were a few inches away from hers and I retreated back again, I couldn't believe I had almost kissed her. I stood up, and offered a hand to help her up as well, which she accepted.

"We should probably go to sleep now, we need as much rest as we can get for tomorrow." And then I went back to my own room, I felt like an idiot for almost kissing her, wondering why I could stop as I started to lean in towards her face, and the more I thought about it the warmer my face got. I knew I wouldn't get much sleep tonight, or so I thought, I couldn't wait for tomorrow in a sense, so that I could see Charm again.

**There you go! so you guys got a bit more insight on Grey in this chapter, and I hope you enjoy it, I will decide and tell you in the next chapter how many reviews I need for the sequel, and I will give you a little summary of it. Also I have to get moving on getting some on these chapters made. Before I even posted this story I had the first seven chapters written (because at the end of the summer I wrote 5 chapters in 4 days) just in case I got behind in my writing, so that you guys wouldn't have to wait forever for an update, cause I personally hate that, and now, I've gotten a bit behind and need to catch up, good thing it's break, I'm starting to get ideas back that got lost in all that stuff I learned in school, so WOOHOO! **

**Anyway I'm going skating with friends so… bye!**


	13. Chapter 12

** Hey guys! So update time! Anyway I promised you guys a summary for the sequel to A Different Time (aka this story). When I posted the last chapter I had no idea and then I sat down and came up with this with a couple other things for the next story that I don't really want to give away until I write it! So anyway here it is!**

**A New Era. Sequel to A Different Time.  
It's the Twenty-fifth annual hunger Games, the first Quarter Quell. Twice the amount of tributes, an arena four times as big, and the Game Makers have decided to put yet another twist on this year's games- the tributes are younger siblings of those that have already been through the Games. Yet another twist is they have allowed more than one victor, but the question everyone wants to know is how many will be alive at the end? What other things do the Games Makers have up their sleeves?**

**Okay so I just started it and if anyone has any, I am completely open to suggestions!**

**Oh and also to write that story I said I needed a certain amount of reviews, and that amount is at least 50! That's about 1.5 reviews per chapter so it should be pretty easy to do! I'm counting on you guys!**

**Anyway this is getting to the good part, the start of the Games! Well, maybe, kinda, sorta, I guess it is in a way, but I will let you figure that out on your own!**

**So I hope you enjoy reading this!**

Leo POV.

I groaned as I lifted my body out of my bed, it was in the early hours of the morning, and yet I had to be up and go to the rooftop for some planning meeting. I stretched my tired muscles and poked my head out of my room to make sure neither one of our mentors nor escorts were patrolling the floor. The coast was clear. I started to make my way to the door at the end of the hall, but I felt the need to check and make sure that Grey had gotten his butt out of bed and up to the rooftop. I opened the door and my suspicions were confirmed, he was sound asleep.

I groaned once again. I figured shouting at him to wake him up wasn't exactly a good idea, since everyone else was sleeping. Instead I went into the bathroom, filled a cup with ice cold water and then dumped it on his head. He jolted up in his bed, and within a matter of seconds had his gaze fixed on me, glaring. I grinned back at him.

"Come on sleepyhead, time to go to the roof." I said while turning my back on him and walking towards the door. This time it was his turn to groan as he got out of his bed and hesitantly followed.

~ROOFTOP 2am~

The girls were already up on the roof when Grey and I arrived, I could tell they tried to hide their snickering as they saw a soaked Grey.

"Have any trouble waking up Grey?" Charm asked in a know-it-all tone, causing even me to laugh slightly.

"Shut up, _princess._" Okay then, someone's not a morning person. "Anyway, what plans do we have so far, besides pushing the Capitol?" He asked in a less irritated tone.

We sat up there for about an hour discussing plans for the start of the Games, paths to take if the Arena was surrounded by ruins, water, forest, desert, or icy tundra. How to spilt up and go our separate ways as pairs, and then how to meet back up again. Grey and Charm took the initiative to find a safe spot once the countdown was over and evaluate the Career Pack as well as the other tributes-how they fight, find any strengths they may have, any possible allies and so on. I knew that none of us were exactly keen on killing other kids, but we came up with four, three and two part plans in case we needed to cause an ambush or attack of some sort. In a way it was a good idea to have a four tribute alliance, that way something happened we wouldn't be entirely screwed over.

And with the four in our group, we had pretty good chances, I would say. Two twelves, both of them strategists and fighters, an eleven-me an analytical smartass who may be of use somehow by identifying things. And then there was Aura, a secret weapon- only scoring a five during evaluations should surprise a few tributes when they see what she can really do.

After we finished our little planning meeting and got back to our rooms I face planted into my bed, and went back to sleep.

~~~~LATER THAT SAME MORNING~~~~

Today was the day the blood bath we called the Hunger Games started. When our mentors woke us up this morning it felt like my body was a huge lead weight, I didn't want it to start at all. At breakfast we ate in silence and I had to force myself to eat so I would have strength in the Arena and to keep my hunger down. I remember in past years there were Tributes that would either refuse to eat or couldn't from their pre-Arena nerves and had ended up going crazy or gone to extremes to gather food. Practically none of them had survived past the first day.

I went back to my room after breakfast and found part of my clothes for the Games lying on my bed. I put on the black pants, a burnt orange shirt, and black shoes that I'm assuming were made for running. I didn't have to comb my hair because of the short buzz cut I was given when we arrived here, but I was trying to find any excuse I could to not leave my room and to not go into the Games. It was inevitable though, I couldn't stay in there forever I had to come out at some point. When I was finally able to leave that room for the last time I almost ran into my mentor who then yelled at me for taking so long and drug me to the elevator tightly grasping my arm probably thinking I would try to run away from everything. I wasn't that stupid- if I tried to run away people in the Capitol would recognize me within seconds from being in the public eye so much lately. And when I was caught they would just send me back into the Games to be slaughtered. I've heard rumors throughout my district saying that criminals, convicts, and traitors of Panem were going to start having their tongues cut out and become servants and slaves of the Capitol. I wasn't sure how true they were until I got to the Capitol, I've yet to see these Anox, no I think it's something like Abox maybe Avox, oh well point is I haven't seen anything like this yet, and I think something drastic would have to happen for the Capitol to do something like that. In the years since the uprising the Capitol has become more lax about certain things like that; I just hope our plan works so that we don't cause more pain or suffering for the people here in Panem.

My mind was becoming a whirlwind of thoughts jumping from one to another not staying on track one bit. Going from my impending death, to Aura, and then to the interviews and my family, anything that caught my attention brought up new topics in my head. I kept thinking back to the interviews last night wondering if I had made the right choice telling people about my feelings about Aura and how people would react to her liking me back. Part of me honestly didn't give a shit about it, but then there was that damn curiosity that made me wonder what was about to happen and how had I affected my fate in doing that? But it was too late, everything was said and done, all of the damage was done, right? That's what you would think but here in Panem you never get the last word, and the damage is NEVER done and over with. If anything this would be minimal to what was about to come. I had a feeling things would only get worse for us from here on out. I just hope that I'm wrong again, and that this plan works.

Grey and I were wearing similar outfits, or at least style wise. His shirt was a royal blue color, and his pants and shoes were dark brown rather than black. We didn't speak a word in the elevator, or any part of the trip to wherever the hell we were going, but it seemed as though our mentors wouldn't shut up. After about an hour we came across a large air-ship-thingy where most of the tributes were already in. We were ushered inside and a few minutes later Aura took the seat next mine, strapping herself in like I had moments before. A few women in blue protective suits came around with a thick needle looking object connected to a rectangular shaped box which rested in their hands.

"Hand." One of the women was right in front of me with her hand held out, like she was waiting for me to give her something.

"Hand." I couldn't tell if it was a request or a command.  
"Hand, now." I was one hundred percent sure now that it was a command, the way her voice became stern made it obvious she was getting annoyed. I gave her my hand which she then turned around so my forearm was facing the ceiling and shoved the thick needle piercing into my skin. It stung and I bit my bottom lip, careful not to show any signs of pain, I didn't want any of the other tributes labeling me as a weakling.

"What's that?" I heard Aura say, her voice laced with what sounded like panic. I took her hand in mine and laced my fingers together with hers in attempt to make her comfortable.

"A tracker for when you are in the Arena- This way the game makers know where you are at and where to pick your dead body up from when you die. Hand." Aura hesitantly held out her hand and winced as the needle jabbed at her skin, and her grip on my hand tightened. Even after the needle left her skin she held my hand in a death grip.

"Are you alright?" I turned to ask her. She nodded.

"I hate needles." I couldn't help but laugh at her.

"What?!" She demanded.

"Oh, nothing. I just think it's cute that a little needle scares you but you don't seem fazed one bit going into an Arena practically facing your death." She blinked a couple times while her brain was absorbing my reasoning, and finally rolled her eyes a couple seconds later. I smiled and reached over kissing her cheek gently, causing her cheeks to become slightly pink. I smiled and leaned over to kiss her cheek again, but this time she turned her head last minute. Our lips touched, and I could swear that sparks flew. I wanted this to be my future, not going to face my death in the Games. I wanted to cherish the moment and have it last longer- Hell I wanted this to last forever. I have no idea how long the kiss lasted, because while we were kissing the world seemed to just melt away, leaving just the two of us, and no one else. When the kiss ended I turned my head to look straight ahead, only to see Grey smirking over at us, and a few other tributes that saw our little episode were staring. My face started to heat up, but I didn't care. The sets of eyes that were staring at us were pulled away seconds later as the massive plane we were on jerked forward as it took off. This was it- the end of my life was starting here and now.

The ride on the plane only took a couple hours and as soon as we landed we were ushered off by peacekeepers, taking each one of us to a separate room in a large metal building. My stylist came into the room with me.

"Well now Leo, we'll all be watching you, remember to make your District proud." I think that was the least I ever heard Flora say, and I was happy with that. She handed me a black jacket to put on to keep me warm, you never know what that weather will be like in the Arena after all. We didn't make any more small talk, and I stepped on the metal platform. The glass began to slide up around me, covering everything in darkness and as light began to stream in the glass surrounding me disappeared.

Twenty seconds. The other tributes were on platforms similar to mine and we were all standing in a half circle around a giant golden cornucopia. I looked around seeing a heavenly wooded area to my left that looked as though it the trees traveled up a mountain, a lake was behind the cornucopia, and on my right the meadow we were standing in extended about another 1200 yards.

Fifteen seconds

My eyes scanned the semicircle of tributes searching for one, Aura. Her hair was left down and straightened. She had on dark brown pants, along with a dark green t-shirt topped with a dark brown leather jacket and a pair of dark brown boots.

Ten seconds

She made eye contact with me before I even realized where she was; she quickly jerked her eyes towards the extended meadow and looked back at me.

Nine seconds

I understood.  
Eight seconds  
we would take off towards the right after getting supplies and run as fast as we could, no one else would try going that way.

Seven seconds.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

A sudden bang sounded echoing off of anything and everything within the Arena. A large cloud of dust fogged our vision.

One.

I'm guessing whatever made the loud bang moments ago drowned out the sound of the number two being said.  
A gong rang and an icy voice was heard to the edges of the world. "Welcome, let the twenty first annual Hunger Games begin!" But I was off of the platform running before the voice disappeared. This started the beginning of the end.

**TA-DA! And the Games have started! The action starts next chapter following Aura and Leo.**

**One last thing before I go, my next update might not be for a little while, like I said last chapter I have gotten a bit behind in writing and also I have finals coming up really soon. I am only taking four this semester with waivers and study hall and everything, but I really do need to study my butt off for Chemistry and Drivers Ed. SO this might be the last of me for about two weeks, sorry!**

**Anyway, I'll see you later, and PLEASE REVIEW!**


	14. Chapter 13

**Hey guys, so sorry it's been a while, I had final exams and a bunch of other crap. But I'm back! I would have updated yesterday but I had writers block and couldn't figure out the ending of a chapter, but it's now finished so it's finished so YAY! **

**So I have a feeling I'm going to ramble a bit so hold on tight.**

**This week we had finals starting in Wednesday and we had a Chemistry test on Tuesday, the main problem about that was all the class averages were F's… which was ridiculous. The same thing happened last year and the year before, but thankfully they curved the grades so I got a B- on it, so I'm happy about that. Especially since I now get three final exam waivers for next semester! **

**Sorry if this authors note is all over the place, I slept over at a friend's house last night and we only got 4 hours of sleep, plus we watched horror movies so that didn't help. I will say though that the movie The Descent is good, but creepy and quite gory… and the ending I think creeped me out the most…**

**Oh, you get to see some action starting now! Please tell me what you think of it because this is the first action scene I've ever written, so TA-DA!**

**And thank you so much to those who had favorite followed and reviewed my story, it means a ton!**

**Anyway I think I'm done now… so as always enjoy!**

Aura POV.

Right as the announcer said three there was an ear splitting bang, followed soon by a less deafening roar of sound. A thick wall of dust covered the clearing.

One.

"Welcome tributes- let the twenty first annual Hunger Games begin!" Snow's voice flooded over the Arena.

I propelled myself off of my platform just as countless others had before me. I know I told Leo to go straight for the woods on the far side of the clearing, but I had to get us supplies, without any supplies or weapons we would be toast. It was hard to see through the cloud of dust even though it was starting to clear; you could barely make out the outline of objects. I felt like I was wondering around like a chicken with its head cut off. I had absolutely no idea where the hell I was going. My foot got caught underneath something that was lying on the ground, which then caused me to fall. The dust and smoke had cleared enough for me to see blood already smeared across the ground, and an arm was at my feet where I had tripped. That's when I realized where it was from. The loud bang during the countdown must have been one of the tributes stepping off of their platform too early, causing them to be blown to bits and a giant dust cloud to be formed. No cannons had been fired after the countdown yet, so I knew it had to be someone stepping off too early.

The dust was starting to clear enough that it was becoming easier to see the other side of the meadow again. I looked around trying to take in my surroundings. Donzi and Taino were at the mouth of the cornucopia, each grabbing their weapon of choice. Donzi taking a red and gold battle staff and scythe, and Taino grabbing a wickedly sharp looking axe and a sword that had a second blade infused within itself. Iush was not far behind. He was sneaking around the cornucopia waiting for the two to clear out so that he could claim his own murder weapon.  
The other tributes were scattered about the field. I spotted Charm and Grey as they were across the meadow from me. Charm and I had a brief moment of eye contact, but it seemed more like we exchanged thoughts confirming going through with the plans we made earlier this morning on the rooftop. The two of them would go into the forest behind the cornucopia and find a safe spot to observe the other tributes skills to see what and who we had to watch out for. I gave her a small nod, acknowledging this and that we would find a way to meet up later.

There was a loud bang that sent my ears ringing- I looked back over at the cornucopia. The five player career pack of the year was there, Taino, Donzi, Summer, Iush and Kali. All Hell broke loose as the body of a district five tribute became limp and fell in front of Iush, whom was now holding a blood stained machete in his hand. I had been ignorant before, I had never expected Iush to join them. Shit, I was an idiot. I should have expected as much, after all most of the time the Victor ends up being someone out of the career packs. Being in the Career Pack made your chances of survival better, they were the ones that hunted down other tributes in a group of the most elite tributes until they were the last ones left, or until they turned on each other. Therefore it only made since that Iush had decided to join them. From what Grey has told me Donzi's already tried to recruit Charm to form an alliance, it only makes since that they would use Iush now, only to kill him later on.

I shook myself out of my thoughts just in time to dodge an arrow, well mostly. My cheek began to sting were the arrow had gazed it, and when I put my fingers to the cut skin they came back blood stained. _Dammit,_ I need to pay attention! I sprinted towards the nearest supply pack at the same time that another tribute had. She was sixteen and was one of the tributes from district nine- Mika I think was her name. As we got closer I dove grabbing the pack before she got a chance. Mika brought a short knife from behind her back.

_ 'Shit, a hidden weapon.' _I started to mentally scold myself for not thinking about the possibility of this girl killing me.

As she plunged the dagger towards me I kicked her in the gut, hoping to knock the wind out of her. Instead she came back trying to cut me again. This time I caught her arm with my legs and twisted her arm until she dropped the knife, and also let out a scream of agony. I picked the knife from the ground. I could kill Mika right then and there and be one step closer to getting out of this hellhole, but I couldn't bring myself to it. I quickly got to my feet and sprinted towards the far side of the clearing. I heard another arrow fly by me, this time missing me by a few feet. My breathing was heavy and uneven as I was only half way to the entrance to the wooded haven. I had no idea what was going on behind me and I didn't take a chance to look back.

Before I knew it another cannon had been fired. That only meant one thing, another child was dead.

Then another cannon sounded off.

And two more rang through the air before an eerie silence fell, and I entered the woods. I kept running as if there was somehow a chance to run home from here. I didn't care where I went it just had to be away from here, away from this torture. I had never thought that I would ever want to go back to my district this much, hell I would jump for joy to just be somewhere safe again.

I had no idea who the tributes were that had just died. Nor did I know whether or not Charm and Grey were still alive, there were already six tributes dead, and fourteen left that I didn't trust. Seventeen other teenagers that were out there plotting and scheming to find a way out of here and seventeen more kids that would have to be slain until the Capitol got their Victor.

The next thing I knew was I was sprawled across the ground gasping for breath. I ran into something, something hard. As soon as I was able to I sat up, knife at the ready, and still panting for air only to see a familiar red-headed, blue eyed, tall, and slightly pale kid sitting on the ground in the same position as I. Leo was sitting across from me sitting on the ground as well, but with a spear by his side. Wait a second, WHERE THE HELL DID LEO GET A DAMN SPEAR?

"Aura?" He I could see the relief in his eyes as he spoke recognizing me. "I heard the cannons, I wasn't sure if you made it out alright." His hand reached up and touched my face, his thumb gently stroking my cut cheek. "What about the other two, do you know?" I shook my head. There was a few seconds of silence between us before he spoke again. "They'll be okay, they wouldn't do something to endanger themselves, or at least Charm won't do something stupid." I could tell he was trying to make me feel better. I just saw six children die, four of them I turned my back on when I could have been the one that could have saved them. What if one of those tributes had been Sola or Fawn, would I have turned my back on them and fled leaving them to die, too?

"What's wrong?" I averted my gaze from looking at him- I couldn't face myself for leaving them behind, so how could Leo face me if he knew that I had run away like a scared little kid. He could hear him exhale deeply as he stood up. "Come on," He offered his hand to help me up. "Let's go find food and see if we can find the others as well." I nodded in agreement.

"Right, by the way Leo where the hell did you get a spear?"

"Uh- well before I ran back here I thought it might be a good idea to grab a weapon and I literally stumbled across this. I was kind of easy to get out of the meadow while everyone was confused and couldn't see past the cloud of smoke, it made a pretty good cover at the time." He explained.

"I see, well let's get started, it's not a good idea to just sit here waiting for something to happen."

"By the way, Aura, what did you manage to salvage from the cornucopia?" God, I kept making stupid mistakes, we needed to know what we had in the supplies pack before we set out so we knew if there was anything we needed to get.

"Well, we can find out together, I haven't had the chance to go through the pack yet, but I did get a small dagger." We walked for a while together until we found a spot we deemed a safe distance from the cornucopia and sat down to take inventory of our supplies. The pack was decent size and it held a canister for about one liters worth of water, as well as a box of matches, a few apples and oranges, a sleeping bag, and spool of thick orange thread. I giggled to myself remembering Leo's costume for the tribute parade had been him dressed as a giant spool of orange thread. I could tell he was thinking the same thing as I was as he groaned, probably wishing he hadn't remembered that part of the preparations for the Hunger Games.

By the placement on the sun in the sky I estimated it was about noon where ever we were. The hottest part of the day, which really wasn't too bad and that could only mean one thing, tonight's temperature would either be brutally hot (if the Game Makers tampered with the Arena enough) or it would be freezing cold.

"So which way do you think we should go to find the other two?"

I froze. When I ran into the forest I didn't even bother to stop and look at my surroundings, heck I couldn't tell you which way the cornucopia was from here. Hearing those cannon shots earlier made my brain all jumbled, I couldn't think straight. Maybe that was part of the reason the Capitol did shoot cannons when a person died, to confuse and mess with the other tributes minds.

It took me a minute to have the nerve to ask him. "Do you remember which way you entered the woods? And from there which way we went to find this spot?"

"If I remember correctly the way we have been going has been south. Moss grows only on the north side of a tree and we've been going the opposite, but I think we entered the forest directly across from the cornucopia. If we go both ways will take the same amounts of time to find were the others are at, so I guess we should continue the way we have been going so we don't backtrack and lose any time." I started at him for a good ten seconds in shock. I didn't understand how he could remember all of that when I could only remember a blur.

"Leo, if you can tell all of that so easily how the hell did you think you weren't going to be any good in here?!" I honestly could believe how much he had doubted himself, or how much he had psyched himself out. He just shrugged in reply.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that we won't be safe if we just sit here. We should start trying to find Grey and Charm or at least get something to eat for later- if we need to cook we need to do so when the light or smoke won't give away our position." Geez, Leo was so good under pressure and I was just worthless. I got up to start walking but he remained seated.

"Are you alright?" I asked. I was genuinely concerned, he seemed as though he was thinking of something unpleasant, but he quickly pulled himself together and got up as well, nodding to answer my question.

We walked for about an hour or two until Leo almost walked off the edge of a cliff. This was weird there was no indication but before you know is the ground gives away to a body of water. The top of the cliff was covered in trees and grass just like before and then it just dropped off. Waves crashed below at jagged rocks that looked as though they had fallen out of the wall of the cliff. If we had kept walking and walked off the cliff if the fall didn't kill us, those rocks most certainly would have.

I turned as I heard a rustling behind us. We both dove behind a thick oak tree's trunk. I could hear two or maybe three voices, they all sounded so young. My hand that held the dagger clenched, I know it would make since to ambush them, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Leo pushed my dagger hand down, as if to signal to me to let them go whilst he poked his head around the tree.

"It's only the girl from my district and the girl from three, I think. They should be harmless. I don't think they even know we are here." No sooner than he had finished saying his sentence, Leo's head jerked up as a blood curdling scream rang around us.

"Shit!" He whisper yelled. I carefully looked around the tree to see one of the girls with an arrow in her back. A sudden blur of movement later and she collapsed with a blade in the back of her neck. Once more the cannon sounded, the girl from eight was dead. And it was the Career pack that killed her.

**I know this chapter was kinda boring but I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading and remember to review!**


	15. Chapter 14

**Hey guys, so sorry for the long waiting time before posting the next chapter. First of all my classes for second semester aren't easy like last semester and I have be bombarded with homework ever since. Also I kinda have a bit of boy drama (I don't really know what else to cal it…) going on, today I gave my crush a note asking him to my school's vice versa dance (and it had my phone number on it) and I've been waiting for a text or call or something, but so far nada. So I'm mentally freaking myself out thinking of the hole that I've dug myself into…**

**Anyway, so last time in this story we were with Aura and Leo seeing the career pack slaughter the girl from eight, right? So because I'm evil I'm still going through the cycle which means you have to read a couple more chapters before going back to them, but this chapter should sum up a bit of what happened to those two. Also, you guys might be annoyed with me because I am writing the beginning of the games for the third time, but that's only so you can see it from the different point of views. And since we are in the games that means there will be a lot of death, so I want to know who you think will be the first of our four main tributes to die. Because that pont is coming up soon, I won't say how soon, but soon. **

**One last thing before I let you go and read I have stumbled upon writers block, so any ideas for this story could help to save it if you want to share! Also it means that times between updating will probably be longer than usual. **

**Alrighty, so enjoy! And don't kill me for the end of this chapter!**

Charm POV.

When I emerged on the platform I was almost blinded by the sudden bright light. As always all of us tributes were in a giant semi circle around the giant golden cornucopia.

Twenty seconds.

I searched for Grey among the platforms, which didn't take very long because he and I were pretty much on opposite sides of the Arena with the Cornucopia right between us. He must have been looking as well because in a matter of seconds his eyes came in contact with my own. Our eye contact broke for a brief second as he moved his eyes so they were looking to my left.

Fifteen seconds.

I followed his line of sight and saw two pairs of nun chucks within close distance of me. Both pairs were made of a dark red colored wood, the only difference was that one pair was dull and the other was spiked. As I looked back at him I saw his hand pointing to something to the right of him, he was pointing to my double elbow blades. When the gong rang he wanted me to get his nun chucks and he would get my elbow blades. I nodded showing understanding.

Ten seconds.

This was convenient, apparently the Capitol thought that we would run to opposite sides of the field to get our weapons, causing us to lose time and have a better chance of getting killed first. They must not have thought of the fact that we could have an alliance with one another.

Nine seconds.

I took a second to identify where each tribute was. On the very end was I girl from 5, Mika I think. Then Aura and few tributes down from her was Donzi, Taino only one or two spots away from him. Grey three down from my brother, then Kali, six later was Leo, then about four more tributes then me and Iush.

Eight seconds.

Next I looked around the Arena observing the shape and surroundings.

Seven seconds.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

My heart sunk as there was a loud bang followed by the softer sound of the cannon. The Arena quickly filled with smoke and dust, and at the same time my nose filled with the scent of blood and smoke. One of the tributes must have stepped off their platform a bit too soon, and was blown sky high.

One.

The Twenty first Hunger Games had begun. It took me a second to recollect myself before I flew off my platform. I remembered where the nun chucks were so I made a beeline path toward them. When I got close I moved my foot around to help me find them. I heard a satisfying clink and smiled. Quickly grabbing them I turned around, still barley able to see a thing, only faint outlines of objects. I saw a large outline headed towards me fairly quickly.

_ Dang it! _I had no idea how to use these things besides just throwing them around aimlessly!

I sidestepped at the last minute allowing the outline to go barreling past me, or so I hoped. Instead they grabbed my wrist. The dust was starting to clear enough that I could start to make out his face.

"Charm?" I let out a breath that I didn't even realize I was holding. I was relieved that it was Grey and not some other tribute.

"Here, take your nun chucks." we quickly exchanged weapons, just in time for the smoke to clear. I saw Aura from across the field and I think I could make out Leo's form disappearing into the forest at the longer side of the meadow. Aura and I had a moment of eye contact and I nodded, signaling to her that we were still going through with the plan. A loud bang caused our heads to snap looking at the mouth of the Cornucopia, where a tribute fell dead to the career pack, or rather Iush to be specific. I turned back to see Aura fleeing back to where I saw Leo disappear to. Just then the career pack came out of the Cornucopia and charged at any tributes they could get their hands on.

"Let's get out of here." Grey said as he took my hand and started to run into the woods behind the Cornucopia.

"Well I sure as heck wasn't planning on staying!" We sprinted towards the border of meadow and trees, but Kali must have seen us because a knife flew by us. When I looked back were the knife came from I saw a sickening smirk plastered on her face. It missed so why was she smirking?

Grey stopped for a quick pause to pick up the knife and then kept running. When he took his pause I noticed a supplies pack off to the left. Even if we had our weapons, we needed a supplies pack to survive.

"Go on, I'll catch up in a sec." I told him.

"No Charm! Ugh!" He groaned in defeat as I already started running over to it. I threw the pack on my back and turned to see Kali prepare to throw another knife. As soon as she did I put my arms up, with my elbow blades on the small dagger just bounced off. I picked it up off the ground and began running again.

"Grey?" I reluctantly said as I entered the woods.

"Up here, Princess." Yup, that was defiantly him. I looked up to see him high up in the tree above me. "What are you waiting for? Climb on up!" It took a couple minutes, and in that span I heard three more cannon fires but I got up to where he was perched in the tree, about thirty-five feet off the ground. It was a perfect view overlooking the Cornucopia meadow. I could see the dead bodies of four tributes lying on the ground, and the scattered remains of the tribute who stepped off of their platform too early. The sight of them sent a shiver down my spine. I couldn't help but think if the tribute that stepped off too early meant to. If they thought they had no chance of survival in the Arena it would make since if they did it on purpose. So they didn't have to die by another's hand, and that their family didn't have to witness it.

All of the other tributes had scattered amongst the trees, lucky enough to escape the careers. I had expected the careers to hide all the supplies left over so only they knew where it was, but instead they took off into the woods- probably to hunt down as many other tributes as they could. Even though they left Grey and I stayed up in the tree for a little while longer.

"Who do you think they'll find?" Grey finally asked.

I shrugged. "No idea, hopefully Leo and Aura won't run into them that could end up very badly."

"Yeah, it would." I heard something splash down against a tree branch below us. I didn't have to look up to see if it was raining, I could feel the heat of the sun pounding down on us. I looked around trying to find what it had been, that's when I noticed it. The reason Kali had that sick smirk on her face earlier. I was wrong, her knife didn't miss.

"Kail's knife hit your arm, didn't it?" I didn't really have to ask I already knew the answer. His arm was bleeding enough to know he was hit.

"Yeah, it's not that bad though. It's only a scratch." He said stubbornly.

"Really, then let me see it."

"I said it was fine." I could tell that he didn't want to deal with this right now, so I would have to trust him. I didn't want to cause any rift between us, especially this soon in the Games.

"Alright, but you need to at least clean it so it doesn't get infected." He just nodded in reply.

"Let's get down from here. We need to find a reliable source of water, or we could get in some serious trouble later." He already started down the tree before he even finished his sentence. I waited for him to get to the forest floor before I started. About a few steps down the trunk my foot slipped out from underneath me and I found myself falling. I closed my eyes, anticipating the ground hitting me, instead I found myself in a pair of arms when I opened my eyes.

"Thanks." I muttered. I was grateful that Grey caught me but I was embarrassed that I had slipped and fallen.

"No problem princess, now let's get going." He started walking off, not even bothering to put me down.

"You know I can walk on my own." I said, my cheeks probably turning pink from embarrassment.

"Oh yeah, right. Um, anyway we need to get water so -" His question was cut off by the sound of another cannon fire. One more person had just died. One more child was just slain. "Dammit." I heard Grey mutter next to me, taking the words right out of my mouth.

"Let's go, standing around won't do us any good. We should probably go deeper into the forest, the lake isn't that far from the Cornucopia, and it's not a good idea to be too close to the Cornucopia in case they come back. Considering the spot we are in right now and the spot the others entered the forest on the other side, both ways are equidistant so it'll take the same amount of time either way."

"So, the only problem is if we could both go the same direction and not run into each other, but only go around the Arena in circles." He finished my though exactly how it had formed in my mind, I guess great minds do think alike. I smiled myself. "Which way do you think Aura would go?" I racked my brain looking for an answer of some sort.

"I don't know, besides it would be easy to get directions mixed up in here. If what I have seen of the Arena is correct, then if we go one way and don't come across either of them within a day, we should either stay where we are, or go the other way."

"Sounds like as good of a plan as any." And with that we started to head deeper into the woods. It only took us about an hour to get to the lake- it looked a lot closer when we were at the Cornucopia. We filled up the canteen we found in our supplies pack. While we were there we took sips of it to quench our thirst and so the canteen wouldn't run out easily.

After that we continued walking again, we didn't talk too much besides plans for the day (what would happen if we couldn't find the others, when we should stop next, other little things like that). We walked for about two to three hours. In that time two more cannons had gone off. If I remembered correctly that made the total dead eight, a little low for the start of the games, but if I knew anything about the games- it was that the Game Makers will be making this interesting for their audience. It was only a matter of time.

"Who do you think is dead?" I asked. A part of me was worried that Leo and Aura had gotten themselves into trouble.

"Don't worry about those two." I could swear this guy could read my mind at times. "Leo and Aura are probably fine. It'll only be a matter of time until we run into them." I certainly hope so, but not knowing whether or not they were safe was starting to drive me crazy. I heard something move to my right.

"What was that?"

"You heard it to?" Grey asked as we readied ourselves for ambush. There was a hiss in the bushes. More than one actually, and they were coming from all around us. Whatever was there I was sure was a mutt. I have to say I'm a little surprised the game makers would throw a mutt into the Games so soon. As the hissing got louder, a wind came in and kept getting stronger. This was most defiantly the games makers doing. "We need to get out of here, fast." Grey whispered over to me. I nodded my head in turn. We sprinted as far away from there as we could, but the wind kept picking up, soon becoming strong enough to slow us down. We had gotten away from that place, but not soon after we thought we were safe a tree came down right in between me and Grey. Soon another and another, the plants around us were collapsing as if they tried to keep us away from each other.

_'Crap, this is not going well.' _I thought to myself. "Grey, go ahead, I'll catch up with you when I find a way around." I practically had to shout over the wind, so that he could hear me.

"Alright, but be careful!"

I knew climbing around the heap wouldn't do any good. I was trapped, and the only way to go was back. I started running back trying to find an opening where I could get across. I kept looking for some way to get out. My eyes kept scanning for an escape, but I could find nothing. I told myself I had to look harder. It worked, eventually I found a small opening in between branches that I might be able to slide through, but it was my best bet. I ran towards the gap, propelling myself through and in doing so, I earned multiple scratches on my hands and face. I stood up picking some leafs off my clothes. I had to catch up with Grey. He was probably a long distance ahead of me already. I started to take off running.

Before I could make it ten yards something slammed into my side, hard. And the next thing I knew hands had found a gap between my elbow blades and my arms, and were pinning me against a thick oak tree by my wrists. I had to struggle to catch my breath, and get my eyesight back to normal after my head collided with the tree trunk.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" The voice hit me like a ton of bricks. "Finally come to your senses and decided to join me, darling?" I held back a growl. If I hadn't been ambushed, I might have been able to fight this guy off. My vision cleared and I saw a career pack around me, and certain person was pinning me to the tree.

_"Donzi."_ I muttered, my voice dripping with disgust.

**Okay so like I said please don't kill me for that. **

**So please Review and tell me what you think. And also an ideas for this story are welcome!**


	16. Chapter 15

**Hey guys so sorry for the ridiculously long wait. I hate to say this but a lot of shit (sorry… I personally don't cuss a ton so that was rare…) has been going on lately and stuff is just messed up so I don't know for sure when my updates will be from now on… Sorry to those who have been or are reading this story. Trust me I don't like this anymore that you do.**

**Okay, so on a different note… I'm curious as to what you guys think about my story, and more reviews means more motivation for me to write so if you guys review with feedback and maybe some ideas than the process of writing these chapters might go a bit faster. I honestly don't care if the reviews are guest reviews, JUST GO AHEAD AND REVIEW! ALL REVIEWS HELP! All you have to do is click the little review button down at the bottom, write a sentence or two and then submit it. I have major writes block for these next few chapters so I could use some help from any and all of you. And I promise that I will give you credit for the ideas of yours that I use!**

**I also want to know who you guys will think will die first and who you think will win in these Games. I pretty much just want any feedback.**

**Okay so last time Grey and Charm got separated and Charm is trapped by the career pack. Oh lord who will they get out of this… or will they? Guess you just have to read to find out!**

**Enjoy! And remember to review! All reviews count. Also if you guys get that review number up to 50 you will get a sequel! Alrighty now, I believe it's time for me to shut up!**

A Different Time.

Grey POV.

I had a feeling that the Game Makers were up to something when the winds started to pick up, but I never had expected them to try to separate Charm and I so quickly. I've been trudging through the forest, fighting the winds. I had no idea in hell how long Charm and I have been apart. I felt like I deserved a slap in the face for leaving her behind, I should have just waited for her to find a way out of the collapsed forest, or helped her find an escape path.

Dammit! Why am I always an idiot whenever it comes to Charm? As the wind died down I knew something was definitely up. I ran back to the direction I came from. I couldn't let anything happen to her, I had already vowed that to myself. As I sprinted around I saw a smaller version of the collapsed forest. There was a small opening in one of the side so I went over to scout the area making sure no one else was there. As I got closer I could hear voices. Great the only way to get to Charm and of course it's blocked by other tributes. I decided to look through the hole anyway just to see who and if I thought I could take them on my own.

As soon as I looked through small opening, I knew I wasn't getting through here, I wasn't that stupid. I saw a career pack spread out in the little clearing. I could hear someone breathing heavily, as if they had the wind knocked out of them. Then I heard his voice.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Have you come to your senses and decided to join me, darling?"

"Donzi" The name was said with as much acid I think someone could put into one word. My heart started to pick up in speed as I recognized the voice. Shit. I abandoned Charm and the career pack had gotten to her before I could. I knew I shouldn't have left her. But then if I did know, why did I? Why did I leave her behind, when I knew something bad was about to happen. God I must have been the biggest idiot on the planet.

I heard an arrogant scoff. "Did you finally decide to ditch pretty boy and come join me? I know you would have a much better time with me than that scum from four." I had to do something, but I had to be careful not to get Charm endangered as I would try to rescue her. I started trying to think about possible ways to get her out of there, I know I couldn't take them all on by myself. I had to be careful. "Iush and Kali, you two go scout around this area. Make sure there aren't any other tributes near here." I saw a flash of emotion in Charms eyes, for a moment it looked as though she was scared. But almost as quickly as the emotion came, it was gone.

"What are you scared for darling? Afraid pretty boy's in danger? Ha-ha, don't worry, we'll make sure you two stay together till your end." I could hear the smirk in his voice as he was talking.

"Good luck finding him, he's probably long gone by now." She scoffed back.

"We'll just have to see about that. I have a feeling he wouldn't go too far without you." He gave her a sadistic smirk. He turned his head to see Iush and Kali still there. "Well since you two didn't go out to scout the area, I guess I'll have to do it. Iush make sure our little guest here doesn't go anywhere, got it?" I could see Iush nod in return and he started walking towards Him.

"Good." He didn't let go of Charm until Iush was right next to him. And to make sure she didn't get away, He punched Charm in the gut, seconds after releasing her, causing the air to be knocked out of her lungs as she tried to double over in pain But Iush took hold of her wrists pinning them behind her back, careful that she wouldn't move her elbow blade and cut him. I had to hold myself back from crushing their throats at the moment. If they dare to lay another finger on Charm, I swear they would use their last breaths begging for mercy. **(Well then, that got a bit dark...) **I had to get her out of this somehow, and get her somewhere safe. I was busy coming up with schemes and plans in my head I became so lost in thought that I hadn't noticed the footsteps behind me until a twig cracked under the weight of someone's shoe.

I swung my nun chuck to catch end of a scythe, knocking it out of its owner's hand. Only to have a small knife pressed against my neck seconds later.

"Damn it." I cursed under my breath. In front of me stood _him _standing there with a ridiculous cocky smirk plastered on his face. And Kali was holding one of her daggers up to the skin of my neck. I could feel the cold metal tickling my neck as it was so close to meeting its point of interest.

"Well, if it isn't pretty boy." She smirked as she had me pinned against the uprooted and collapsed trees. "Looks like you were right Donzi. He wasn't far away from that little rat from twelve." I could feel my anger building up inside me. I tried to push it down, but before I could I felt a growl escape my lips. I had to find some way to get out of here. There were only two of them, and Donzi is empty handed since I knocked his sword away. "Now, now, we don't need you to escape, you couldn't if you tried unless you want to get your throat slit, and we don't want that" I saw her smile widen as she anticipated her next word "yet." I mentally cursed and scolded myself for letting my thoughts show clearly across my face, giving away any bit of a plan I had managed in the past few minutes

"Besides," _He_ chimed in. "If you even think about trying any funny business, your little friend will have to pay the price." He laughed as he saw the waves of fear and anger wash across my face. I had to get Charm out of this somehow without getting her killed, I kept telling myself that, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of a way out.

"Get up." Kali ripped me from my thoughts as she ordered me around. Naturally, being stubborn I didn't listen. This only caused me to receive a right hook from _him._

I reluctantly stood up. And was lead into the small clearing where the careers were holding Charm as well. Her green eyes became wide in shock as she saw me.

"You idiot, you were supposed to keep going! Now look what you've gotten yourself into!" Charm was scolding me as if I was a little kid, when I was actually two years older than her. I know she didn't mean this but, if we could distract the careers we might be able to get out of here in some way shape or form.

"At least I'm not the one that got captured in the first place!" I scolded her back.

"I told you I would catch up, and yet you turn around to come back, you must be stupidly brave or a complete imbecile!" Okay, so that one may have stung a bit. I opened my mouth to retort but a groan from a certain friend's brother interrupted me.

"Shut your damn pie holes before I shut them for you. You two are both here and are both about to die so shut it, you'll need your voices to scream and beg for mercy, like the pieces of shit you are."

"Oh gee _Brother_, I can feel the love." Sarcasm dripped from Charm's voice and I could almost swear she muttered "if only mother could see the true monster you've become." I watched Taino as his anger flared, as he must have heard the same words I thought I had. Next thing anyone in the clearing knew, Taino pounced on his sister. He gripped her face making her face him eye to eye.

"Just remember you little bitch, which one of us is the reason why she's dead." Everything became eerily silent as the sound if a smack rang around us. When she turned her head back, I could see a red mark forming on her face and a small trail of blood streaming out if the corner of her mouth. There have been many occasions when I have wanted to rip her brother's throat out, but right now was when I had the biggest urge to. Although it seems as though Charm was having the same thoughts as she lunged at him, placing a small gash along her Taino's cheek and then another long cut running through the length of his thigh.

Everyone in the little clearing was shocked from what had just happened before us. I recovered faster than the Careers did and took the opportunity to slip out of Kali's grasp, making sure to avoid the dagger in her right hand. Before she noticed I had escaped her hold Donzi came charging at me, his scythe placed back in his hand. I managed to avoid his blow by knocking the tip of the blade away from my body. He kept slashing and swiping trying to land blows on my chest, face, and torso, all of them were blocked. I was so busy fighting with Donzi that I almost didn't notice Kali come up behind me with a knife raised, about to plunge the cold dagger into the skin on my back. I did not have enough time to block the attack from the position I was already in.

I expected the worst as I saw a blur coming towards me and the clash of metal against metal sounded throughout the forest. It took me a few seconds to realize someone had taken the blow from Kali with their metal weapon and had saved my life. That person was Charm. I watched as Charm and Kali fought, both of them moving gracefully like skilled fighters, twisting and turning to counter attacks from one another. Kali had pulled out a couple longer knifes trying to be able to wound Charm from a farther distance. I watched as the rounded end of one of Kali's knifes caught on the tip of Charm's elbow blade. She smirked as she moved her arm, thus making the small sword to fly into the air. The hilt landing in Charm's hand as it came back down. In one swift move she swiped the blade across Kali's forearm, drawing blood, and knocked the girl out by hitting the rounded end against the side of her head. And I couldn't help but be shocked by the aggressiveness of Charm's attacks.

"Nice job, Princess"

"Just try not to get yourself killed, Grey. And remember to watch your back!" I turned in time to see Donzi try to charge at me again. I hooked my nun spiked nun chucks around the rounded blade of his scythe, pulling it down to the ground. His body followed the scythe, leaning down towards the ground. I kicked him in the chest while his guard was down, sending him back a few feet.

"Do you want me to break your nose again Donzi, 'cause I'd be more than happy to oblige." I smirked as I swung a nun chuck at his face. The spikes grazed his cheek as he attempted to dodge the swing.

"Oh, don't worry pretty boy, I'm only getting started." As soon as Donzi attacked again, I realized he was holding back, trying to tire me out so I would be easier to take down. But now the blows were delivered mercilessly, and malice gleamed in his eyes as he tried to kill me. I heard more metal clashing nearby and glanced over to see Taino attacking Charm viciously. I could tell she was started to get overpowered by her brother. We had to get out of here and away from these two killers if we wanted to survive. As I blocked another attack, I was a glint of light being reflected off of a sword as Summer came charging at us with. As she was five yards in front of us she stopped dead in her tracks. A cannon sounded and she fell to the ground dead, revealing Iush standing over her dead body with a blood stained machete. Iush grabbed the sword from Summer's lifeless hand, and charged at Taino. Two swords verses one. Donzi ran to his leader's side, making the fight a bit more even with now two swords verses two.

That's when it clicked and I realized Iush didn't really join the Career pack, he wanted to stop the Careers, and he took on an inside job to do so. Charm and I had looked at each other and we nodded, once again having the same thoughts. Iush had saved our lives, so the least we could do was go over and help him get rid of the dangerous duo.

"Get out of here, I can handle these two bastards." Iush spoke with a gruff voice, as if he had expected us to help when the fight became two on one.

"No!" Charm retorted, "you helped us, so now it's or turn to help you!"

A smile formed on his lips. "Just get going. Good luck with your plan, you two may play a bigger part in this than you realize." I saw Charm stiffen from the corner of my eye. "GO!" He commanded one more time.

I took Charm's hand in my own and took off running with her behind me. We exited the enclosed space the same way I had entered when Donzi and Kali brought me in. We ran the hell away from there, and I couldn't tell you how long we ran for. We stopped when we were wheezing and gasping for breath, when we knew we couldn't run anymore. We sat on two rocks trying to catch our breath.

"Have you heard a cannon sound yet?" I asked. She shook her head. That was good, there was a chance that Iush was still alive, but that also meant that both Donzi and Taino were both still alive as well. We sat in silence as we slowed our heart rates, and our breathing went back to normal.

"How'd he know?" The question was abrupt and blunt- I didn't even realize what she was asking me. She spoke in a softer voice, "How'd he know we were up to something? Iush? He seemed to know more than he let on."

It was a good question but I shook my head. I had no idea. Maybe he had overheard on the train, or in the training center. Heck, he could have even been lurking in the shadows on the rooftop without us knowing. There were multiple ways and chances he could have found out.

"If he figured it out so easily, what about the others?" I knew that by saying others she meant the people in the Capitol, and most importantly Snow. He could order us dead in a heartbeat.

"Everything we be fine, don't worry about it." I tried to comfort her, and we fell back into silence. I took the opportunity to take my surroundings in for the first time. The forest was thicker than before and I could hear a stream or two in the distance. There was something familiar about the area, not the way it was set up, but something in the area reminded me of home. I felt a pang in my gut as the thought of home made my stomach flip. But I had to know if it was real, or if my mind was just playing tricks on me.

"Do you smell saltwater?"

**So remember to review just click that button below and type away!**


	17. Chapter 16

**Hey everyone!**

**Sorry for such the long delay between chapters, today I had a breakthrough and figured out how to write this chapter. I would be able to list off several good and valid excuses as to why I haven't updated in so long as well, but I think that would take too long, and you guys would rather read the story. Anyway, we left off with Charm and Grey making it away from the Career Pack safely. So, that means that it is time to go back to Leo and Aura, woo!**

**Also I would like to thank **_**girlynerd1 **_**for the review and follow and favorite for both my story and me! It means a ton! Also, to answer your question, all in good time. I apologize that the relationship between Charm and Grey is taking so long, but I am more focused on the character development between the two, so it may come later in the story (I won't say if it will be sooner rather than later or what, but it will be in the story I can promise you that! **** )**

**School is almost our for me so I should be able to get back to writing a lot more frequently, and I will start writing more stories (I am starting to plan a Gadge fanfic that I think will be rather interesting, and some stories for some other books in the near future so keep an eye out for them!**

**One last thing before you guys read, for those of you that have read all I have posted and that have an interest in this story or like it a lot, I'm going to start looking for a beta so that if I get writers block again I'll have some help. This may be a bit different than regular betaing, basically proof reading (because my grammar sucks) and helping me with ideas. So yeah, if you are interested please leave a review or PM me and tell me. **

**Anyways, Happy reading! (And may the odds be ever in your favor)… **** You read that with a Capitol accent didn't you? :D**

A Different Time

Leo POV

"No." The word came out of my moth before I could comprehend it. I had just witnessed the death of my district partner. I had never taken the time back home to get to know the girl, who she was, who she wanted to be. But none of that mattered now, she could never be who she was again, and she could never be who it was that she wanted to be. Her cannon sounded before her body could fall to the grown. A splash of crimson red exploded from the sensitive (and now bloodied) skin of her neck. If that wasn't enough her attacker continued to throw knifes that the dead girl's limp body. The cool metal was cutting into her pale skin, deeper and deeper the cuts became as the career that murdered her kept coming closer and closer to his latest victim. His figure was close enough that I could now see who the vicious soul who mutilated a dead body was.

Taino. Charm's brother was coated in splatters of blood of Xana. The girl that had been beside Xana was quick enough to run away and was agile enough to dodge the single dagger sent at her by Taino. A deep, dark chuckle emerged from the direction Taino had appeared from.

"Don't worry my bloodthirsty friend; this one is well past dead. Shit, you probably killed whatever part of her soul was left." Donzi's voice sent a shiver down my spine and he stepped out of the shadows. There were a few words that were exchanged between the two career tributes before I was finally able to hear them again.

"Leo-" Aura began in a hushed whisper. I signaled for her to be quiet as I tried to listen to the conversation going on in front of us. There was only the cover of the wide cherry-oak tree we were crouched behind. After what seemed like an eternity I could find the cruel voices once again.

"Come on my comrade; let's go find that little sister of yours. I can't wait to watch her face as I tear lover boy apart little piece by little piece." You could hear the venom and resentment dripping from the blonde haired boy's voice. "Besides I still need my little moments of alone time with her. I'm sure I will be able to make the last moments of her life... quite enjoyable. If not for her they most certainly will be for me." His tone was full of lust and desire and a low growl of a voice had escaped from his lips. It was easy for me to say that I was disgusted. I glanced over at Aura to see her body had tensed up.

A snort escaped from Taino. "Donzi if you are still trying to get a rise out if me with anything concerning that little bitch, you have another thing coming." The voices were getting softer almost as if they were walking away. I figured that it may be a good idea to stay crouched down invade the careers were attempting some sort of new diversions tactic. When I looked over at Aura again I saw her crouched in a position that she could easily spring herself from and would be able to easily attack the two retreating forms.

"I don't think they noticed us here, we're safe." I whispered over to Aura. I turned my body to look back at the retreating group.

"Leo!" A sharp whisper exclaimed from beside me as Aura jerked my shoulder towards her. At that moment a knife flew past the tree, grazing my left arm before it disappeared behind the cover of the tree trunk. The following seconds were slow and agonizingly silent. The silence broke as the small knife plunged into the water below.

"Great job Kali," Donzi's voice was dripping with annoyance. "You wasted a perfectly good knife, just to stab a body of water." Kali's defenses immediately went up.

"I swore I heard something over there!" She snarled back.

"We'll next time you _know_ something is over there, don't waste the knife. Besides, if there was something in the trees more of us would have noticed, and don't you think whoever it was would have tried to run away rather than staying a sitting duck?" Kali opened her mouth to retort, only to be silenced by Donzi again. "Don't, you've already proven yourself to be too much of a hassle, one more word out of those pretty little lips, and the next cannon that goes off will be yours." The District one girl was quite after that, and the Careers slowly disappeared beyond the tree line.

Aura let out a breath she was holding, sighing in relief. "That was too close for comfort, Leo you have to be more careful!"

"I know, I know. I don't know why I didn't think."

She sighed again. "Come on, they are far enough away by now, we should get a move on it. We need to meet up with the others before the sun sets tonight." I nodded. I still couldn't believe how thick headed I had been earlier, and that I had almost gotten the two of us killed. I moved to push myself up, only to have a sharp, searing pain run up my arm. I released a grunt of pain in response to the searing pain. When I looked over at my arm I realized Kali's knife did more than just graze me, it left a large gash from my forearm to the middle of my bicep. My arm was covered in a layer of warm, crimson liquid from several layers of skin and muscle tissue being cut threw. Bile rose in my throat as I saw the gruesome gash. And as she saw it, Aura's eyes widened in horror as she saw the damage done to my left appendage.

"How…?" She released quietly. "I thought the blade only brushed your arm."

"So did I. I guess we were just too distracted by the career pack and what they were doing, to notice. I'm fine it just stings right now. Give it a few hours and I'll be fine." I tried to reassure Aura so that she wouldn't freak out and hinder us from finding the other two.

"Like Hell you'll be okay in a few hours. You'll have bled out by then and die, with how much blood you've lost so far I'm surprised you're conscious. Also, we need to clean your wound so it doesn't get infected."

"I'll be fine, just like I said." To prove my point to her I attempted to stand up again, making sure I didn't use my left arm to push my body off of the ground. I was able to get on my feet with no problem. But as I went to take a step to get my point across to Aura, then there was a problem. I felt light headed and as if I may faint. My legs gave out from underneath me and I slid back onto the ground. Even though I wasn't standing anymore my head was still reeling. "Dammit."

Aura crouched down next to me and helped me prop myself against a tree trunk for support. She gently removed our survival pack from my back as she did so. "I told you you'd be lightheaded." She said quietly as she did so.

"Actually, if I recall correctly, you said I would bleed out within a few hours, you at no point said I would be dizzy and lightheaded." She took a good few minutes to look at me before mumbling the word "Asshole" under her breath. Aura took a piece of fruit out of our pack and handed it to me.

"Eat it, you'll need your strength." Then she ripped a piece of her shirt off, exposing her midriff, and went over to the water and dipped the ripped cloth into the salt water. After wringing some of the water out of the cloth she came back over to where I was sitting and placed the cloth on my arm. I winced as the salty water stung my damaged flesh. "This may sting just a bit." She warned me, just a bit too late.

"I kinda noticed." I said in a joking manner, trying to keep the mood light between us. I studied the features of her face, only to see them focused on cleaning the blood off of my arm. Her lips were curved downwards, instead of her radiant smile and her eyes were squinted in focus. She was so close, that it gave me an idea. I gently put my fingers under her chin, and pulled her face closer to mine until our noses were practically touching. "Thank you, beautiful." I saw her cheeks darken in embarrassment at her nickname.

"Well, are you going to kiss me or not, Romeo?" I smirked at her reply and complied with her request. My lips met hers and it was as if sparks flew again. This kiss was even better than the first one. We melted into each other and it was as if we were in paradise. The only bad part was when we had to break apart.

A few hours later Aura had my arm bandaged up (decently considering our lack of bandages and gifts from sponsors) and we continued on our path trying to find Charm and Grey. Within the past half-hour few cannons went off, and we were both on edge after the near Career pack encounter. I have had to use my spear on and off as a walking stick the past two hours and occasionally rely on Aura as a crutch to help keep me up and on my feet. My blood loss has recently begun to hinder my ability to walk. We have not passed any water sources yet, and no animals have come by for use to kill and use as protein for our bodies. The temperature is beginning to drop down as the day reaches its end. At this rate, Aura and I will die of starvation, dehydration, or hypothermia.

I looked over at Aura beside me (at the moment she was helping me walk again) and she looked exhausted. I suggested to her that we needed to sit down and rest. It took a few attempts to have her finally agree with me, but when she did we found a spot close to the ocean and some shrubs, so that we were covered if we were attacked.

Aura finally broke the silence between the two of us, "Do you think the other two are still alive?" Her voice was quite as neither of us was sure if we wanted to know the actual answer.

"Charm and Grey are both strong. They're fighters and they are stubborn as Hell, I doubt they would die on the first day in here, unless every tribute and Game Maker decided to gang up on them. The probability of that happening is also very slim, because the capitol will want to have as dramatic of a Hunger Games as they can, and those two will most likely be the center of that drama."

"I certainly hope you're right, if not-" She was cut off by a sudden noise from behind us. As quickly as she could my companion grabbed the spear and was prepared to attack anything that came at us. I attempted to stand, which on my part was a VERY bad decision as my dizziness forced me back on the ground. When I was able to look up again I noticed Aura frozen before a brown haired, blue eyed boy holding a small dagger back at her. I looked in front of me and saw a blonde holding a blade at my neck.

"Well, speak of the devil and they shall appear, huh?" I finally said. Aura, Grey and Charm all chuckled and dropped their weapons at my comment. Aura and Charm hugged each other, each glad to see the other.

"What happened to you two? We thought you had gotten yourselves killed!" Aura asked.

Grey smirked as he replied, "We had a couple close calls, but I think you two are in worse shape than us."

The four of us started a fire as dusk came around, and exchanged our stories with each other. Grey and Aura went hunting, and in the remainder of the days light, Charm was able to rewrap my arm. We blew out the fire when it was close to nightfall and a few short minutes later the Panem Anthem began to play. The faces of those who lost their lives today flashed across the sky, Summer, Xana, both from three, the girl from five, the girl from seven and the boy from nine. With only seven deaths on the first day of the Games, the rest were bound to be absolutely brutal.


End file.
